Hubner: «When Vieri got hurt before England-Italy, I thought Trapattoni would call me»

La Stampa interviews Dario Hubner. A career that started late. He arrives among the professionals when he is already 30 years old, before a career spent in the minor leagues. However, Hubner still had his rewards, such as playing alongside Roberto Baggio.

Hubner: «I was a blacksmith»

From 16 to 20 years in First Category.
«I trained in the evening after work was finished. I had left school after middle school and was a blacksmith. For a few months I had tried the bakery: I liked it, but I had weird hours. Football remained a hobby until Zambianchi, sporting director of Treviso, in C2, saw me in a tournament and spoke to Apostoli, a man from Muggesa who had played with him in Udine. They proposed that I go on retreat and I accepted, but I left the factory with the promise of getting my job back if things went badly.».

Cesena opened the doors of B.
«I have wonderful memories, President Lugaresi was a second dad. For the first time I felt like a footballer: famous teams, more spectators, my name in the newspapers. In 1995-’96 I became top scorer, I had already achieved it at Fano in C1».

At 30 years old, Serie A…
«I was sad about Cesena’s relegation, the call from Brescia consoled me. I made my debut at San Siro against Inter in Ronaldo’s first match, I had never seen 85,000 people in the stadium. I also scored, with an assist from Pirlo: if anyone, during my time at Muggesana, had predicted it to me I would have taken them for madness».

In Brescia he played with Baggio:
«Exquisite boy, never a prima donna attitude. To many of us it didn’t seem real that we were sharing the locker room, but he put himself on our level and actually got angry if we showed him any consideration. We scored many goals together and we got along well, but he was more suited to a center forward, skilled on the banks, while I looked for depth».

They called her Tatanka…
«For physical strength and because I ran hunched over. At the beginning it was Bisonte, in Italian, as the Cesena fans baptized me, then the film Dances with Wolves suggested the translation into Sioux language».

Last season in Serie A…
«I was 38 years old, I wanted to play again just for fun, but instead Mantua called me in C1. We went up to Serie B and I left the professionals, but I continued in the amateurs until I was 43 and then in the amateurs, also working as a goalkeeper. Like when I was a boy playing handball or like that time at Juventus,
when Cervone was expelled».

Is the national team a regret?
«I can’t have it: if I think that at 20 I was in the First Category, I only have to thank football. And it’s wonderful to still feel people’s affection. Of course, I hoped for a call. When Vieri got hurt before England-Italy, it really looked like Trapattoni was calling me, but instead he brought on Maccarone from the Under21s».

Hubner had started coaching…
«I stopped because it’s not my football. In the amateur categories it happens that you have to make compromises, having to let the sponsor’s son or the sports director’s cousin play: a friend of mine claims that at those levels, sometimes, you don’t coach, but you work as an accountant».

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