Gigi Cagni is furious with the prophets of tiki-taka

On Radio Napoli Centrale, during the show “Sempre Con Te,” Coach Gigi Cagni spoke: the former coach of Piacenza, Parma, and Sampdoria, among others, didn’t hold back at all, as usual. “The teams doing best right now are Como and Roma. Soccer has been ruined by those who hyped up that bullshit ‘tiki-taka’.”

“Today, soccer is all about speed,” added Cagni, who, among other things, still holds the record for most appearances in Serie B, with 485. “I watched PSG vs. Barcelona; they love to control the ball, but you see spectacular soccer because it’s intense. In recent years, we’ve lowered the intensity because they said ball possession was advantageous.”

In recent weeks, Cagni has returned to the center of the soccer debate due to a social media spat with two of his former players, Daniele Adani and Alessandro Budel, who are now pundits. The veteran coach had pointed the finger at both of them—not even too indirectly—accusing them of “preaching” about soccer without ever having coached. Twenty-four hours after the post was published on his official Instagram page, Cagni explained that he had spoken directly with Budel and cleared things up over the phone.

Born in 1950, a native of Brescia but a longtime resident of Liguria, Gigi Cagni played for nearly twenty years in Serie B and C, wearing the jerseys of Brescia, Sambenedettese, and Ospitaletto, before embarking on a long coaching career that began and ended in Brescia, with stints at Centese, Piacenza, Hellas Verona, Genoa, Salernitana, Sampdoria, Catanzaro, Empoli, Parma, Vicenza, Spezia, and Sampdoria.