Phone door! Vieira: The 2006 Serie A championship should belong to Juventus. He left that year because he didn’t want to play in Serie B.

In a recent interview, Vieira, the current Genoa coach, spoke frankly about the "Calciopoli" scandal, his coaches and many inside stories of his player career. He insisted that the league title that was deprived of him in 2006 should belong to Juventus, and revealed the real reason for leaving the team that year.

Is that Juventus team better than the Arsenal team you played for?

This is a complicated issue. Juventus was very powerful during that period. I think half the players in the 2006 World Cup final were from Juventus and I had a great time in Turin and it was a pity that I had to leave, but because of what happened, I had to go.

Have you ever thought about staying in Serie B with Buffon, Trezeguet, Del Piero and others?

No. reason? I don’t want to play in Serie B. And I’ve only been here for a year: Buffon, Trezeguet and others have been linked to the club for much longer. The reason I didn't want to stay was purely a sporting one, because I didn't want to play in the second division. I had the opportunity to go to Inter Milan and I decided to take it.

You have joined a club that Juventus fans don’t like. What do you think of this?

Unfortunately, football is made of choices and I chose to do that.

Do you still feel that the championship in 2006 belongs to you?

Do you think I don’t? On the contrary, I think so! This championship has to count because we are the strongest team on the field, we won it on the field and we only focus on things on the field. Everything else, it's hard for us players to control.

You later moved to Inter Milan and worked with Mancini and Mourinho.

I joined at the right time. The coach at the time was Roberto Mancini and there were many players in the team who were eager to win and wanted to take the club to another level. Players like Stankovic and Zanetti, and later I was lucky enough to play with Figo.

Mancini is a coach who always pays close attention to his players. He has very clear ideas about the style of play the team wants to play and is very well prepared tactically. He gave us the opportunity to take responsibility on the court and give us the freedom to make choices and decisions. This is a crucial aspect.

And Mourinho is the most versatile of all. He is impeccable both at the tactical level and in team management: he always has plans A, B and C, and the players know exactly what they have to do.

Have you had any conflicts with Mourinho?

We never had an argument, but I wasn't one of the players who played the most minutes, and for a guy who's used to winning, it wasn't easy to accept certain options. We had a few fights, maybe two or three. The good thing about Mourinho is that he is always direct and never beats around the bush. And then it's up to you to accept what he's saying, because even though it hurts, it's the truth. At that time, there were players like Cambiaso, Stankovic, Motta and others who made great contributions to the team. This was difficult for me to accept. But now that I'm on the other side, I understand it better.

In the 2006 World Cup final, Zidane headbutted Materazzi. What are your memories of this?

I was on the bench and didn't directly see what happened. Talking to Zidane later, I had to admit that he shouldn't have ended his career that way, especially in a final. Unfortunately, on the court, sometimes you lose control. And, Materazzi is Materazzi (laughs).

Have you and Materazzi talked about the overhead incident?

No, we never talked about that topic. When I arrived at Inter Milan I had the opportunity to get to know him better and found that he was a completely different person than he looked from the outside. He's really funny and an extraordinary guy. Off the field, he is a completely different Marco.

Is it strange that Zidane and Materazzi have not reconciled after twenty years?

Yeah, that's weird. Anyway, I can't say if we would have won at eleven against eleven. The Italian team is well organized and knows how to defend. Once it goes into overtime, I think Italy's goal is to take the game into a penalty shootout.

Tell us about Genoa, where you are currently coaching.

From the standings, it can be said that we are lagging behind in points, but we must look at it as a whole: not only points, but also the content of the game. We have played back and forth with all opponents and deserve more points than we have now. And then there's the stability of the project, where we have a clear idea with the boss and management of what we want to do.

What happened when the team lost 0-3 to Lazio?

Screwing up a game happens, and tactically we lost some structure. Lazio took advantage of our weaknesses and their strengths to make things difficult for us. That game left us with a message that the balance of the team is important, and this was reflected in the subsequent game against Napoli.

What is your evaluation of the young talent Norton Cuffey in the team?

The U21 European Youth Championship has allowed him to grow in confidence. In his current position, he is one of the best players in Italy.