On Saturday, Chivu will return to the Olimpico as a coach for the second time. A return that brings back memories of a story never truly resolved between the coach and the Giallorossi environment, marked by episodes that left their mark.
The relationship broke down definitively in the summer of 2007, when Cristian accepted Inter‘s offer. During negotiations, at the first training session at the Flaminio stadium, he was heavily insulted by the fans. From that moment on, every time he returned to the capital as a Nerazzurri player, he was met with deafening boos.
However, the tensions had started earlier. In November 2005, after Roma-Strasbourg, speaking to Sky, he praised Fabio Capello, who at the time was at Juventus and not a welcome figure in the Roman environment: “He brought me to Rome and I will always thank him. It would be a pleasure to work with him again. I’m here, I have another two and a half years on my contract. But in football you never know, we players don’t get to decide.” The reaction was immediate: boos at every home game and a situation so heavy that he was forced to see a psychologist, as he himself later admitted.
The lowest point came on May 5, 2010, in his third season in Milan. Cristian won the Coppa Italia at the Olimpico precisely against the Giallorossi, the first step towards the historic Treble. Exasperated by the hostile atmosphere, at the final whistle he blatantly showed the middle finger to the Roma crowd. A gesture that cost him a referral and for which he publicly apologized: “I could give many reasons to explain or justify an instinctive gesture, but when you make a mistake you apologize.”
On Saturday he will return to the capital and will probably receive some boos. For the Nerazzurri coach, by now, it will no longer be a problem.
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