Falcao: Roma are a big club and must think big

“Roma are a big club and must think big,” said Falcao, speaking at a press conference held in Trigoria on Tuesday to present the documentary 'Chiedi chi era Falcao' ('Ask who Falcao was'), which has been produced by Roma Studio and will be broadcast for the first time on Roma TV on Thursday at 22:00 CET.

“Part of thinking big is the club owning its own stadium, like clubs of the calibre of Real Madrid and Barcelona do,” continued the former Roma player. “It’s important to have a home of your own. I’ve read about a lot of controversy and I don’t want to get into that.

"I’ll just say that it’s important to be able to use a stadium that’s completely yours – it could be the cherry on the cake. If they build their own stadium, Roma could get even bigger.”

Falcao also looked back on his arrival in the capital all those years ago.

“It was a special time for me,” he recalled. “Back then it was very tough for a Brazilian to be the only foreign player in the team. I was lucky enough to have a coach – [Nils] Liedholm – who really helped me a great deal. It wasn’t easy to fight against teams that had a lot of political power at the time.

"That side won people over quickly because of the attractive brand of football we played. A big part of it was the ability of president [Dino] Viola and Liedholm, who was an extraordinarily important figure for the whole team.

“All the issues back then laid the framework for us to start to build a great team. We became a team that people loved. The most important thing for me was the fact that Roma hadn’t won the league in 40 years – that was the challenge. I found the perfect team – they made me as comfortable as I had been in Brazil. I really bought into it, physically and mentally.

“The team started to grow into a great side when we nearly won the Scudetto in the first year.”

Thirty-five years have passed but the rivalry between Roma and Juventus lives on. Is it as hard to beat them now as it was back then?

“We’re talking about a fantastic team, now and back then. Our success was extraordinary at the time because we managed to beat a Juventus team made up of half the Italian national side. It was Roma’s greatest triumph. The rivalry lives on to his day and that’s great.”

Do you prefer to receive praise from older people or youngsters?

“You can’t put a label on love – it’s not an easy thing to define. But that’s something that’s always struck me. It’s one thing when it’s a person that has seen me play and win the Scudetto, but it’s completely different when it’s a 21-year-old lad who wasn’t even born back then. It’s something I love.”

Part of your legacy is the mentality you brought to the group. If you had to describe how to inject a winning mentality into a group, how would you do it?

“Roma already had a winning mentality, but it was always tough playing against teams from the north. I had total confidence in the ability of the players I had alongside me – you can’t win or lose a football match before kick-off. We had Bruno Conti, who had the technical profile of a Brazilian player. The team usually played to a seven out of ten but raised its game to reach eight or nine out of ten – that was my contribution.

"Bruno was more technically gifted than me, Agostino [Di Bartolomei] had a bigger shot on him, [Pietro] Vierchowod was quicker than me… and then there was Carletto [Ancelotti]. We managed to build a team capable of winning. That was what I brought – I made people believe that we could win matches and clinch the Scudetto.”

How far have Roma come between 1980 and today?

“It’s hard to say, but the club has definitely come a long way. The facilities are top class and they have everything they need to achieve results. In my day, victories were earned on the pitch, but nowadays you can start to lay the foundations for a win well in advance.

"You can get to know the players better and look to the future rather than focusing on specific moments – that’s what big clubs must do. Trigoria feels different now – there’s a winning feeling here.”

Do you think Liedholm’s so-called spider’s web system has any parallels with the tiki-taka style Pep Guardiola implemented at Barcelona?

“Back in the 1980s, all Italian sides played a man-marking system and Liedholm wanted to switch to a zonal approach. It was a hard thing to pull off. He was the one who brought zonal football and the idea of playing offside to Italy. [Arrigo] Sacchi then took that style of football and added pressing. We had Bruno and Agostino who were great with the ball, so Liedholm asked us to focus on possession.

"[Roberto] Pruzzo was a fox in the box, I brought a bit of organisation, then there was the pace of [Sebastiano] Nela, then [Aldo] Maldera, [Luciano] Marangon, [Emidio] Oddi and [Michele] Nappi. Everyone did their jobs well in their positions. We went direct too – it wasn’t just about horizontal passes. We played good football and I believe we didn’t win as much as we could have.”

There’s a lovely shot of you in the documentary in front of the Curva Sud. How does it make you feel to see Roma matches with so few fans in attendance?

“It’s horrible. The Sud was always right behind us, and not just when we were playing at the Olimpico. They always had the same banner with them on the road: “Don’t think, just love Roma.” I hope that an agreement can be reached and they come back. I don’t really know the ins and outs of it, so it wouldn’t be right for me to speak about it too much.

"The only thing I can say is that the Curva Sud is sorely missed and I hope it returns.”