Mancini: 'Never wanted to play for Samp'

By Football Italia staff

Roberto Mancini confesses that he never saw himself playing for Sampdoria, “I played for Bologna against Genoa and said: 'I would never come to play in a city like this,' two months later I signed for Samp.”

Mancini became a Blucerchiati legend, spending 15 years at the club between 1982 and 1997, but says he had no intention of playing in the city of Genoa.

“I played for Bologna against Genoa in Genoa, we passed the Morandi bridge and I remember thinking: “I would never come to play in a city like this,” two months later I was a Sampdoria football and I stayed for 15 years,’ Mancini told journalist Marco Ansaldo at an event in Genoa.

Mancini stayed at Samp whilst others, like Gianluca Vialli and Sinisa Mihajlovic, moved on to win more silverware.

“I probably would’ve won more, but I have no regrets.

“I met a great person in Paolo Mantovani. The President was 50 years ahead of the others. He was a good man and Samp was our family.

“Win one Scudetto and everything else in Genoa was beautiful because we made a person like Mantovani happy.”

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