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The original was posted on /r/soccer by /u/Sparky-moon on 2026-02-09 13:42:28+00:00.
Original Title: Former Italian goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano says that leaving Inter was the only regret of his playing career, while once he ‘smelled of alcohol’ before an Arsenal game against Everton, for which he had unexpectedly been called up
Viviano: ‘Leaving Inter my only regret’ “In my career, I made several decisions with my gut, and leaving Inter is the only regret I have,” Viviano said.
“I never played because I did everything I could to leave, against the wishes of the club. Julio Cesar was in his final year, and they were looking toward something new. They even told me so, but I didn’t believe them.
“I always carried a kind of anger inside me,” he continued.
“Today, I’m calmer, I’ve learned to be this way also by reflecting on that side of my character, zero diplomacy, which, even when I was right, ended up putting me in the wrong. And it affected my career.”
Viviano was Arsenal’s third-choice goalkeeper in the 2013-14 campaign, but never played a match for the Gunners.
“At Arsenal, there was Wenger. I was expecting something revolutionary,” Viviano said.
“In terms of approach, he was a normal coach, but I didn’t play because Szczesny had an incredible season, and there was also Fabianski.”
Viviano recalled what happened the night before an away Premier League match against Everton, for which he was not supposed to be called up.
“I went out partying and around 2 am, I stepped outside to smoke a cigarette and read an SMS: ‘Fabianski is ill, a car will come to pick you up at 6:30 am.’
“I had drunk half a bottle of vodka. I went to my friend who owned the club and showed him the message. He asked: ‘What now?’ I replied: ‘Now bring me more vodka.’ I got home, had a shower, and when I arrived in the dressing room in Liverpool, the great Santi Cazorla told me: ‘You smell of alcohol, it’s disgusting.’ It was the only time in my life I almost had a panic attack. I couldn’t see anything and kept repeating myself: ‘If I have to play, my career is over.‘”
What kind of evolution is that?
“As a football player, to keep the flame alive, I always had that kind of anger inside me. Today I am more peaceful, I have learned to be so even thinking about that side of my character, zero diplomacy, which even if I was right led me to be wrong. And it affected my career.”
It wasn’t just that.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes and I’ll tell you about them, but I’ve never considered saying what I think to be a mistake. There are those who have been left out of six different teams and found another one every year, but Viviano was always the one who argued and talked too much, not the one who would have given an arm and a leg for a teammate. Italian soccer is like a big apartment building, rumors multiply and destroy you: look at De Zerbi.”
What does De Zerbi have to do with it?
“He hasn’t coached at a high level in Italy yet because people are influenced by the image Roberto projects of himself. They praise fakes and cowards, but when he tells you the truth and always shows respect, they call him arrogant. Or they don’t want him because they’re afraid they won’t know how to handle him. But does the human factor, who he really is, count for nothing? Does only how he manages external communication count?”
With the referees? I even played the supercazzola from ‘Amici miei’ on some of them, since they didn’t understand anyway.
It seems you didn’t manage her.
"In fact, I had a wonderful relationship with coaches with whom, thanks to our rapport, I didn’t even need to say anything: Cosmi, Zenga, Mihajlovic. Sinisa and I had a few heated exchanges, but they lasted thirty seconds; I would have done anything for him. Let me tell you this: one morning, I had slept very little, I walked into his dressing room, he was completely naked, and I said to him, ‘Coach, I’m late: it’s better if you don’t train me today’. And he said, in three words: ‘Go home’. The next day he called me: ‘Do you know that if you had found an excuse yesterday, you wouldn’t have seen the pitch again until the end of the season?’.
How did you get on with the referees?
“With the toughest ones, very well. In my last year in Serie B, I got a straight red card for saying ‘You suck,’ but with Pairetto, I went overboard and he pretended nothing had happened. With some of them, I even used the supercazzola from ‘Amici miei,’ but they didn’t understand it anyway…”
Before becoming a goalkeeper, you were a striker.
“And at the same time, I was a cyclist until I was 12: I had a future, but it was too hard work. I’ve never been able to stand cardio: I’d rather do 1,500 dives and four hours in the gym than cardio. I always trained at 20 percent, maybe even less: I was so physically powerful that I could afford to, everything came easily to me, but then in the long run you pay the price.”
And how did you get on with Zeman?
“One day he looked at me strangely and said, ‘Why aren’t you running?’. ‘Coach, I became a goalkeeper so I wouldn’t have to run’. ‘Then don’t run’. Another story: one day he saw me smoking behind the bus and said, ‘What are you doing hiding?’. 'No, coach, but it’s not good for people to see a soccer player smoking.‘ 'Look, only thieves hide.’”
In Brescia, you trained with Baggio.
“I’m from Florence, I was born in the mid-80s, for us he was like a religion.”
And for you, playing for Fiorentina for only one season, what was it, a half-dream?
“No, look: if you’re a die-hard fan of a team, if there’s unconditional love, there are no ifs or buts, the time frame doesn’t matter. When Fiorentina came looking for me, Real Madrid and Manchester United could have called me at the same time and I would have gone to Fiorentina. It was my lifelong dream, and for a dream, there’s no such thing as too little or too much. There’s just the dream, and that’s it.”
You mentioned Baggio…
“Imagine when, at my first training session with the Primavera team, I saw him come into our locker room to introduce himself. He sat down with us, asked us how we were doing, and when he heard my accent, he asked me, ‘Are you from Florence?’: his eyes lit up. Several people in my neighborhood would say to me, ‘If you see him, say hi to Baggio.’ I thought it was just a cliché, but in reality, they were all people Robi had gone hunting with.”
Inter is my only real regret. I never played because I did everything I could to leave, against the club’s wishes.
Guardiola was there too.
“I was 17, and at the end of training he asked me, ‘Would you like me to shoot some goals with you?’ He’s a man of infinite intelligence and sensitivity: if you tell him today that your daughter has broken her ankle, in two years’ time, when he meets you, he’ll ask you how your daughter is doing.”
You had the Arsenal, Sporting, and Inter jerseys without playing a single minute: did fate steal something from you?
“At Arsenal, there was Wenger: I expected a revolutionary, but he was a normal coach. I didn’t play because Szczesny had an amazing season, and there was also Fabianski. At Sporting, it was a political issue: President Bruno de Carvalho wanted me, but those who replaced him made life difficult for me. Three million euros for a player who didn’t even play in a friendly match, just sat on the bench. Mihajlovic didn’t even start, and the other coaches would come up to me and ask, 'Why aren’t you playing? 'How should I know?‘. The fourth coach, Marcel Keizer, explained it to me: 'There are orders not to call you up’.”
And Inter?
“In my career, I’ve made several gut decisions, and that’s my only real regret. I never played because I did everything I could to leave, against the club’s wishes: Julio Cesar was in his last year, they were looking for something new and they told me so, but I didn’t believe them. One of the stupid mistakes I mentioned earlier.”
Earlier, when he was co-owned by Bologna, Mourinho kept an eye on him.
“He definitely did that when Bologna played Inter in a fairly delicate match, and he did it his way: he stood behind my goal for the entire warm-up. It was his way of saying ‘I’m watching you,’ to see how I reacted under pressure. But it was also a clever way to put pressure on me in that game.”
Inter reappeared in his life seven years after that separation, following his experience at Sporting.
“Handanovic was injured, I had done the medical tests and even a training session, then I was locked in a hotel waiting in vain. They never explained to me what really happened: some said it was Handanovic’s decision, others said it was Conte’s, but the fact is that Piero Ausilio called me and said, ‘Vivio, it’s not happening’. And that was that.”
Amen, even for having played only six games for the national team?
There was Buffon, someone who, incidentally, should have been applauded in every Italian stadium, but instead did not receive the respect he deserved everywhere. As his second in command, it was impossible to play more, but after those two years I should have been more present: it didn’t happen through any fault of my own.
Speaking of faults, someone who played for the national team with you could say the same thing…
"Look, Mario Balotelli is a guy with great values, who never caused any problems in the locker rooms he frequented, except to himself. We’re friends because he trusts me. If I tell him something, 99 times out of 100 he listens to me. Like that time when he had to go to a press conference for th…
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