Giorgio Chiellini, a bittersweet goodbye for an Italy legend as he heads to LA

When Artemio Franchi came up with the concept of the Finalissima it was meant to be the ultimate final.

At Wembley on Wednesday night there was a different interpretation, an alternative reading of it as The Last One. The very last one. For Italy’s captain Giorgio Chiellini.

He didn’t intend his international career to end this way. “I wanted to change my story with the World Cup,” Chiellini said. But it wasn’t to be. Not after Palermo a couple of months ago, the Favorita and the favourites for that single-game play-off semi-final who won’t be going to Qatar in November.

Advertisement

Aleksandar Trajkovski saw to that. His speculative last-minute shot in the stadium also known as the Renzo Barbera making history less for his North Macedonia side and more for Chiellini, for whom the bell tolled sooner than he would have liked. “I believe in destiny,” he said.

The European Championship has always been his tournament. Not just last summer, when the 37-year-old defender lifted the trophy here under Wembley’s helixed arch. But in 2016 too, when Antonio Conte’s Italy left the impression they could have won the competition had Simone Zaza and Graziano Pelle made better choices in a quarter-final penalty shootout against Germany. And in 2012, when Chiellini made it to another final in Ukraine, losing to Spain.

“I’ve got no regrets,” he insisted, with utter sincerity.

Not about 2006, when he was still in his early 20s and represented the future rather than the past. Marcello Lippi included him in his pre-World Cup get-together. But that tournament in Germany came too soon for him.

“I rightly didn’t go,” Chiellini acknowledged. Not when there was Alessandro Nesta, his good friend Andrea Barzagli, Marco Materazzi and Fabio Cannavaro, the Berlin Wall, a rare Ballon d’Or winning centre-back.

To Italy, the significance of Wednesday’s Finalissima against Copa America winners Argentina was less about bringing another trophy back to Florence, the city where Franchi has a stadium named after him, and more about honouring Chiellini.

Before kick-off, the president of the Italian Football Federation, Gabriele Gravina, presented the Tuscan with a trinket to commemorate his 117th cap for his country. Only Gigi Buffon (176), Cannavaro (136) and Paolo Maldini (126) have more, arguably the Mount Rushmore of Italian defending (but we’re going to need a bigger mountain range to fit in Franco Baresi, Gaetano Scirea, Beppe Bergomi and so on).

Advertisement

“Quite a lot of time has passed,” Chiellini reminisced. More than two decades since he turned up at Coverciano for the first time. That was in “1999, for a call-up to the under-15s”, his nose still yet to be broken in one place and then another, his body without the scars it bears today.

As London prepares for a Jubilee, the Union Flag hanging over the city’s streets, a succession happened in the blue of Savoy. Inter Milan’s 23-year-old Alessandro Bastoni took Chiellini’s place at half-time last night — the anointed one.

“Alessandro has a bright future ahead of him,” Chiellini said. “I’ve been telling him this for a long time, since the first time I saw him. I don’t want to get too excited about the other players coming through as I don’t know them as well. Bastoni just has to play, make mistakes and improve. Nobody’s perfect at 23, but he has everything to play for Italy for the next 10 or 12 years.”

As good as Bastoni has already shown himself to be, there is concern Chiellini is the last of his kind, that his approach to defending, celebrating last-gasp clearances and stinging blocks with the same roaring delight as Pippo Inzaghi when he used to score goals, is gradually being lost, like a nonna’s old recipes.

It’s why his Juventus head coach Massimiliano Allegri insists: “They should send a video of Chiellini to Coverciano, to show the next generation how to defend. It should be sent to all the academies too”, where centre-backs are instead taught to be midfielders and where making a pass is valued more than stopping one getting in behind your defence.

Coach Roberto Mancini called the Finalissima an end of an era for this Italy squad, but “It doesn’t mean 15 or 20 players will leave.” On the contrary, Lorenzo Insigne has made himself available for selection even though he’s soon going to be playing for MLS side Toronto and Ciro Immobile has been persuaded to give the national team another few years. “But from tomorrow, we will bring through some young players to understand how good they are and whether or not we can count on them in the future,” Mancini said.

Advertisement

Kids like Wilfried Gnonto, the 18-year-old striker who got into double figures as a super-sub for Swiss title winners FC Zurich last season, as well as more established talent such as Sandro Tonali, who played a major role in AC Milan’s first Scudetto since 2011 this season, Nicolo Zaniolo, Roma’s match-winner in the recent Europa Conference League final, and Federico Chiesa, once he’s fit again; not to mention the two Sassuolo lads, Giacomo Raspadori and Gianluca Scamacca.

While the present may not be as bleak as some would have you believe, especially after a 3-0 defeat to Argentina in this meeting of the reigning UEFA and CONMEBOL champions, the Finalissima did provide a moment to wallow in the disappointment of Italy not going to another World Cup — another rude awakening from the midsummer night’s dream that climaxed against England at this same ground less than a year ago.

Above all though, it was one last chance to feel blue about the prospect of an Italy side without Chiellini.

“I love it,” he said, when asked what he would change about Italian football, “otherwise I would have cleared off earlier”. He’s off to MLS too, with LAFC, his career’s Sunset Boulevard.

“I want to enjoy the next few days to the full,” he smiled. “I’m going to take my kids to Disneyland.” The amusement park that brands itself as the happiest place on earth.

For Chiellini the footballer, that was always Coverciano and the national team.

It’s a shame the ride is over, but what a ride it’s been for one of the Azzurri’s all-time greats.

(Top photo: Michael Regan – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57kmxrbXBgaHxzfJFrZmluX2V%2FcLPIqKmgoZ9isKm1xKWjoqaZYra1rcuyZKWZXw%3D%3D