Fabio - The phone call

“Hi, Fabio, I’m a journalist from [insert any publication you like]. Napoli-Inter is on Sunday and we’d like to interview you.” For many years, twenty-three, to be precise, Fabio Galante was plagued by these phone calls, always in the days leading up to Inter’s trip to Napoli. The reason? He had scored the goal that secured Inter’s last victory there before a long run of negative results.

Inter arrived in Naples at the top of the table, under the guidance of Gigi Simoni, who had managed Napoli the previous season. His successor in the dugout was another monument of Italian football, Carlo Mazzone, known to everyone as sor Carletto. A knowledgeable coach who was undoubtedly a far greater figure than the caricature he was so often reduced to.

Inter took the lead through a player few would have expected: Fabio Galante. A free-kick, a save from the goalkeeper, and then a header from Simeone. In a moment of genius, rather than going for goal himself, he nodded the ball back into the middle, where Fabio Galante was waiting all alone to calmly turn it into the net. It was his second goal in six league appearances and those would remain his only two Serie A goals for Inter for the 1973-born defender.

“Ronaldo, you are just a small part of Maradona.” That was the message on a banner displayed by the Napoli fans, which we have loosely paraphrased. The Phenomenon was playing at the home ground of a footballer who was, if not the greatest of all time, certainly the most charismatic. For once, a rare occurrence that season, Ronnie was not the star of the show, having endured a less than brilliant afternoon. By today’s standards, the second goal would unquestionably be credited to Aaron Winter. Back then, even the slightest deflection was enough for a goal to be classified as an own goal. Turrini got the decisive touch to make it 2-0, and that was how the scoreline remained.

For twenty-three years, it would be Inter’s only victory at the San Paolo, leaving Fabio Galante’s phone buzzing in the days before every meeting between the sides. Each year, poor Fabio had to recount every detail of what was probably the simplest goal of his career: a header from point-blank range, into an empty net, right on the goal line. Thankfully, 6 January 2020 finally brought an end to the curse. Inter won 3-1, with a Lautaro brace and a goal from Lukaku, and at long last, the hoodoo was broken.