Gigi Cagni calls out two of his former players (one of whom is Adani)
Gigi Cagni, now a farmer, hasn’t forgotten the criticism he received from two of his former players, Daniele Adani and Alessandro Budel. “Show some respect for those who have been coaches—you’ve never been one yourselves,” emphasizes the 76-year-old from Brescia in a video posted on Facebook that has already gone viral. His advice to the two—who are now TV commentators—is to go pick olives.
“Adani was right—it’s my fault we didn’t make it to the World Cup, so it’s better that I quit,” Cagni added ironically, having filmed the video while he was actually picking olives.
This isn’t the first time the two have traded jabs from afar. The rivalry between Cagni and Adani had already flared up in the spring, when the former Fiorentina and Inter defender, during an episode of *Viva El Fútbol*, singled out the Brescia-born coach as a symbol of the Italian defensive mentality: “I’m sorry to tell you this, but today there are still many Cagnis, many coaches like Cagni.” A dig to which Cagni had responded harshly in the pages of *La Gazzetta dello Sport*: “Those who talk like that on TV aren’t doing soccer any favors; they just want to be the center of attention with their rhetoric.”
On that occasion, Cagni also recalled his relationship with Adani from the time he coached him: “I had him for a year; I didn’t consider him a starter because, in my opinion, he didn’t deserve it. But we had a normal relationship. Maybe he took offense because when he started working as a second commentator on broadcasts, I said I’d turn off the audio, but I don’t care.” He even predicted a rapid decline in the RAI commentator’s media prominence: “As long as he stays at RAI, he’ll hang on, but then he’ll disappear because he has nothing to say. There’s no comparison between Adani and me. Sure, I don’t speak as well or as eloquently, but I’m clear and knowledgeable.”
Cagni’s ironic reference to Italy’s failure to qualify for the World Cup stems from a soccer context that remains painful for Italy. On September 25, in the first match under Roberto Mancini’s new management, the Azzurri were defeated 0-2 by Belgium at the Olimpico, with Adani among the harshest commentators of the evening on Rai channels: “We can try to spin it however we like, but we’re the only national team in the top 20 of the rankings that isn’t participating in the World Cup.”
