Massimo Moratti, revelation about Francesco Totti
Moratti’s words
Massimo Moratti spoke to Corriere della Sera on the 30th anniversary of the beginning of his era at Inter: "Zamorano without videotapes I would never have caught him. He put his soul into it, an Inter man inside. Before every game, he was so tense that he would vomit".
"Ince? With the children we used to go to Manchester games. I was lost to Ince. Lost. He was to become an Inter player. Period. I went straight to his house to court him. Sneijder? I thanked a bartender in Forte dei Marmi. He stopped me to tell me that with Sneijder we would win everything. He was right. I called Branca, Branca called Mourinho to ask him if he could serve Sneijder, Mou said “Sneijder? Eh maybe”, Branca called me back to say Mou wanted him, I took Sneijder. The most courted one? Ronaldo. As a good Brazilian he loved to be chased, blandished. All we did was talk to each other a thousand times on the phone every day, he first “sì I’ll sign” then “no I have to think about it”, “sì I’ll sign”, “no I have to think about it”, on and on like thatì…".
Missed purchases chapter: "Iniesta. At a stage when we had enormous appeal and economic power, I’m not saying we could have bought anybody, but almost … here, we tried with Barcelona, we tried in every way, with diplomatic actions on several fronts, with mediators, spending ourselves in person, engaging in negotiations to get, as it were, further and further input in our favor … Nothing, there was no way, they would have given up anyone but Iniesta no, we could have made any kind of crazy offer, any, but we would still have gone back to Milan alone".
"Messi? We were following him at the under-18 World Cup. We were going to buy him, but knowing what Barcelona was doing about his health problems, I let it go. I swear. Totti? The’then ownership’of Roma was full of debt, overflowing with debt… The president was so desperate that he came to offer me Totti. Crying… Then maybe Totti would have chosen to stay at Roma anyway, but even then we at’Inter left it alone. Things of soccer, things of feelings".
