Gasperini recalls Thiago Motta anecdote that ‘shocked’ Genoa fans | OneFootball

Gian Piero Gasperini recalls the problems he had with Thiago Motta when it came to giving him his Genoa debut as a player. ‘People were shocked.’

The midfielder is now a coach, having taken Bologna to Champions League qualification and is all set for a new role at Juventus from next season.

His playing career had effectively ground to a halt when he was a free agent in 2008, joining Genoa after an injury-ravaged spell with Atletico Madrid.

“Thiago was an incredible story,” current Atalanta boss Gasperini told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“He arrived after two years of injuries, he had been training with us for 40 days and kept finding excuses to postpone his debut to the next week.

“At a certain point, I told him to work with his personal trainer and come to join us when he was fully healed. I put him on the bench against Siena, just because at least he could see the game from there rather than the stands.

“Then Omar Milanetto got injured. I looked at Thiago Motta for three full minutes, he kept saying he couldn’t play. I turned around and told him: ‘Are you still here?’

“So he went on without any warm-up and played a fantastic game in which he did not get a single pass wrong. We won 1-0 and people were shocked.”

Thiago Motta revitalised by Gasperini

That happened 15 minutes into the match on October 19, 2008 at Marassi, decided by the Giuseppe Biava goal.

Thiago Motta went on to play 27 Serie A matches for Genoa, in which he scored six goals and provided two assists.

It was enough to earn him a €10.2m transfer to Inter in 2009, where he would win the Treble, then saw out his playing career at Paris Saint-Germain.

The midfielder did reunite briefly with Gasperini at Inter, playing in the 2011-12 Supercoppa Italiana.