Trapattoni, the Pope of Italian football

Trapattoni, the Pope of Italian football
Deutsche Presse Agenteur

Rome, July 8: A unanimous chorus of approval welcomed Giovanni Trapattoni's appointment as Italy's National football coach.

Juventus colleague Carlo Ancelotti and Italy's traditionally critical media on Friday agreed he was ``The right man in the right place'', and German star Lothar Matthaeus called him ``The best coach in the world''.

That Trapattoni should attract such wide-ranging consensus is hardly surprising. For ``trap'' is not simply Italy's most successful coach ever, he embodies the national spirit. Trapattoni is passionate, pragmatic and extremely likeable.

Appointing Trapattoni was like ``Electing a Pope around which there can be no dissent,'' wrote Candido Cannavo on the Gazzetta Dello Sport.

Age has not tarnished his image. At 61, Trapattoni is still the most successful, shrewd, charismatic and boisterous coach in Italy. He has turned mediocre players into top class footballers, league -- minnows into championship winners, the arrogant into obedient angels.

Giovanni Trapattoni is nothing less than a living institution in international football.

Born in Cusano Milanino, a small town near Milan, he become a staunch midfielder for AC Milan, then embarked in one of the most successful coaching careers Italy has ever seen. Last year, he overtook the legendary Nereo Rocco as the coach with most Serie A wins: more than 350.

Six years ago, after nearly a quarter of a century sat on the bench, pundits were convinced his glory days were finally over.

He had won seven Serie A titles, a European Champions' Cup, three UEFA Cups and one Cup Winners' Cup with Juventus and Inter Milan.

Arrigo Sacchi and his innovative tactics had stormed on the scene, Trapattoni's methods were now considered old-fashioned.

But Trapattoni refused to be beaten. He embarked on a new adventure in Germany and in 1997 led Bayern Munich to a Bundesliga title and a German Cup win in 1998. Germans called him ``the maestro''. Not only was he a legend in italy, he had also proved he could bring success to any major club in Europe.

Feeling nostalgic about his homeland, he joined Fiorentina in 1998 and nearly won the title despite a lacklustre squad.

Trapattoni is also a man who is unable to mince his words. His thunderous televised attack on Thomas Strunz, guilty of complaining about his training methods, has become an indelible memory for German fans. The tirade was turned into a rap song, ``the trap rap''.

``After my historic outburst, Karl Heinz Rummenigge and Franz Beckenbauer came to compliment me. They said: `Now we recognise you''', he recalls.

Bayern Munich fans who sniggered at his grammarless German may be reassured to find out Trapattoni's Italian is also less than perfect.

His exhilaratingly confusing mode of speech has often left note-scribbling journalists baffled. A partial catalogue of incomprehensible phrases includes: ``Let us be absolutely clear, this discussion remains circumcised between us. My attitude is a token, and I believe in it because it is believable. I fear that if certain situations were emphasised too much they would create a uniformity of ideas rather than an equivalent general form: We played well.''

Trapattoni's modesty prevents him from listing his qualities. ``Others should do that, not me,'' he once said. He did not hesitate to point out his biggest defects, however: ``I am too obstinate and stubborn''.

His qualities as a leader are indisputable. His ear-splitting whistling is the invisible string that directs players like a puppeteer with his puppets.

An unlikely legend has it that his whistling woke up the entire maternity ward while he was still in an incubator.