DORTMUND Don’t call it Indispensableotherwise coach Spalletti will warn you («These are the wrong words» he said on Rai on Saturday evening) because Italy is a single body of 26 players. But if one puts his head and heart into it like Nicolò Barella, then the whole organism is able to go beyond its limits. The state of psycho-physical exaltation in sport has a precise name — flow — and Nicolò Barella is his ideal testimonial at this moment, because at 27 years old he has been playing the best football of his career for several months: a pure concentration of technique, running, speed and “desire to spit blood for the shirt”, which opens up new views on his career. And, even before that, on the European Championship of this Italy which overcame Albania thanks to B2 Bastoni-Barella, with Nico’s decisive goal, a right-footed counter-ball at 94 km/h which caught a magnificent and relentless effect for Strakosha. And for once he didn’t hit the post or crossbar, as has often happened this season with Inter.
Pilot stretcher and engine
This multipurpose Barella, driver and engine at the same time capable of making 105 correct passes out of 108, a little Gattuso and a little Pirlo, is one of the strong points of Spalletti’s team and with Saturday’s goal he has become the best scorer of the Azzurri present here in Germany with ten goals and even surpassed Francesco Totti.
If the match against Albania, which is at number 66 in the FIFA rankings, is difficult to categorise, what could be better than challenge to Rodri’s Spain, the best in the heart of the game, and the young phenomenon Pedri? «Barella is one of the strongest in the world, because he has the great humility of a wingman but also the talent of a champion – explains the Inter president Beppe Marotta, present yesterday at Casa Azzurri — . As a player he is modern and complete. Can he play Calhanoglu’s role? Yes, he has all the qualities: vision, support and throwing, from a very good competitive point of view, he is technically strong and eclectic.”
Nicolò is modern, but ancient at the same time: has just renewed his contract with Inter for another five years, at 6.5 million per season, becoming the highest paid Italian footballer in Serie A. A long marriage, the first of the Oaktree era, which the player wanted to celebrate before the European Championship, to keep his head clear. But in reality Barella’s is full of happiness: on 6 June Romeo was born, keeping company with his three little sisters Rebecca, Lavinia and Matilde. In December, Nicolò and his wife Federica Schievenin, had announced the arrival of their first son, but had also explained that they had lost his twin: “An atrocious pain” as they wrote. «I thank all my teammates, the coach and the staff because they were close to me in a moment that was not easy for me» said the player after the beautiful slalom in the Napoli area and the goal that had contributed to the heavy victory at Napoli on 3 December Maradona. That was the turning point of Barella’s season, after several games played badly, nervously, but without ever retreating an inch.
Why Nicholas the Indispensable he doesn’t make calculations: football, like life, is unpredictable and grants new opportunities, perhaps to celebrate with one of the precious bottles from his wine cellar. “Resting to recover from the muscular problem was good for him,” explained Spalletti. But Nico raced against time to be there on the secondary pitch of the Iserlohn sports centre. And he was struck by how the team embraced him again: “The kids made me feel important.”
Like an absolute leader, a technical guide, but even more importantly a moral one, capable of showing the way: humility and talent, hammer and brush. To sculpt and refine this new blue dream.
