Former Juventus defender Paolo Montero compares his former Bianconero teammates to ‘a family’ and explains how he got away with punching Luigi Di Biagio.
The Juve legend gave a lengthy video interview to Juventibus, along with fellow legends Mark Iuliano and Luciano Moggi.
He began by explaining his infamous altercation with Inter midfielder Gigi Di Biagio.
“On a previous corner, Di Biagio had caught me and practically split my lip open,” Montero told Juventibus.
“So, I led him into an area where there were many players crowded together, so the referee couldn’t see us. And, in fact, he did not see us…..”
“I thought the South American passion was bad in the derby with Penarol, but the worst was in Italy. We were on the bus in Florence and Sergio Porrini said: ‘Fortunately there’s nobody waiting for us today.’
“Suddenly, they started hurling rocks at us and we had to lie down in the corridor of the bus to stay away from the windows. I’ve never seen such hate!”
Montero spent almost a decade with the Bianconeri, during which time Juve were among the strongest sides in Europe.
“What I appreciated most at Juve, with Lippi in particular, is that if something was wrong, they didn’t take it out on the youth, but on the leaders (Peruzzi, Ferrara, Del Piero). And this is a great lesson that I took away.”
“I felt Juve was like a family. It was great to go to the Stadiums. If the training was at 9am, Mark Iuliano and I always went early to have breakfast there. We lived in the locker room, you never wanted to leave the locker room.”
“In the season after the injury, Alessandro Del Piero felt too much responsibility, so I told him that he didn’t have to worry about us, but rather we had to take some of his responsibilities and put him in a position to help us win the games. ”
