Former Brazilian striker Sérgio Clérice led in 1997 the U-18 team of the Commercial, from Ribeirão Preto, to the Viareggio tournament dispute in Italy, when he noticed an unusual riot just upon arrival at Milan-Malwear airport.
The swamp had a reason: Argentine star Diego Armando Maradona, Napoli idol and newly designed football, was trying to land.
By crossing glances with the old shirt 10, Cleric asked him, “Do you know who I am?” Maradona smiled and replied, “How could you not know? In Naples, I’m number 1, and you, El Gringo, number 2. I would like you to play beside me.”
The two said goodbye with a kiss and a hug, a moment witnessed by Clérice’s youngest son, Marco, one of that team’s players.
Author of 187 goals in Italian football over 18 years working for seven different clubs – Lecco, Bologna, in two passages, Atalanta, Hellas Verona, Fiorentina, Napoli and Lazio – and treated by Neapolitan fans as an idol, Sérgio Clérice, 84, has this and many other stories told in biography released by journalist and writer Rodrigo.
In the 296 pages work published by the publisher A Bola and the Word, Viana tells the little known saga of “El Gringo, The Elegant Villain”, which features a presentation by filmmaker José Roberto Torero, ear written by Zico and Preface by journalist Mauro Beting.
“Many young people may not know him, but there is no other Brazilian player who comes close to his numbers in Italy,” the author told Sheet.
“It is surprising how he had remarkable moments in all the teams he played in Italy and was still a cutting -edge coach in Brazil, always being ahead of giants. Not to mention the transactions as an entrepreneur,” he added.
The nickname El Gringo is linked to the fact that Clérice has the square chin, similar to Tex Willer, comic book character created in 1948 and published in Italy. Like other figures in the old west universe, Tex was referred to as El Gringo, who became a common nickname for foreigners in Italian territory.
“One of the things that most impressed me in his history as a player is that he went by the Side of Pelé, which is only six months older than the Clérice. He left Brazil after a game for the Paulista Championship, a classic of the beaches between Santos and Portuguesa Santista in 1960. The clerice was loaned by Palmeiras and was the best on the field.
According to the author, the coach of Clérice in Portuguesa Santista was Major Maurício Cardoso, former commander of Pelé in the Army. Another curiosity linked to the King of Football is that the main coach of Cleric in Italy, Swedish Nils Liedholm, scored one of the goals in the final won by Brazil in 1958; Pelé did two.
The book divides the trajectory of Clérice into three phases: as a player, coach and agent. In the last of these, the work describes how Paulista was responsible for important transactions, such as those of strikers Evair (from Guarani to Atalanta), Sonny Anderson (from Guarani to Servette) and Élber from Londrina to Milan.
“There is another book that tells the story of Napoli, written by Davide Morguera, and one of the excerpts says, ‘Vollevo Esse Sergio Clérice’, which translated is: ‘I wanted to be Sérgio Clérice.’ This gives dimension of its size,” said Viana.
Success in Italian football, Clérice regretted not having agreed to resign her Brazilian citizenship to play for Azzurra. “It could have stayed in Italy, a country where life is great and where I have all my true friends,” he says, in an excerpt from the newly released work.
Another curious passage from the phase as an entrepreneur is the nomination of young Ronaldo Nazário, then promise from Cruzeiro, to Milan, made directly to Silvio Berlusconi, owner of the club. He says he called friends at the club years later, when Milan hired the Brazilian at the end of his career for 7.5 million euros (just over $ 20 million at the time of the time) in 2007: “If they had heard me …”.
As a coach, Clérice was responsible for launching the young Junior, today Dorival Júnior, who built a career as a player in several clubs before becoming a coach – he has labeled the Brazilian team and currently directs Corinthians. Clérice AMBÉM was pointed out as a reference by Luciano Spaletti, who recently left the command of the Italian team.
