Venturi: The best years of my life

Our own Tiziano Riccardi has been to interview Arcadio Venturi, one of four players inducted into the AS Roma Hall of Fame Class of 2016. Check out the interview below…

“Anyone who’s worn the Giallorossi shirt – even just once in their life – never really takes it off. They remain a Roma player for eternity,” declares Arcadio Venturi, AS Roma Hall of Famer, Class of 2016.

Venturi certainly wore the hallowed shirt more than once. In fact, he spent nine seasons with the club between 1948 and 1957, racking up 290 appearances and scoring 18 goals.

He was a midfielder that gave the impression of being capable of doing every job on the pitch. And though Roma were not such a successful team in his time, Venturi never betrayed the Giallorossi, leaving only when the club were forced to sell.

“I was 28 and planning on ending my career here, but then Inter bought me. Their coach, Jesse Carver, was mad about me and did everything he could to take me to Milan,” he remembers, now aged 87.

How did you end up joining Roma?

“It was 1947. I was an 18-year-old with pretty good prospects, but I was unproven at a top-level club. I was playing in Serie C with Vignolese, a club from a small province in Emilia Romagna. I caught the eye of a Roma scout who organised a trial for me in Montecatini, where Roma were having their training camp. They gave me a run out in a friendly match and my performance convinced the club officials to sign me.”

How much did they pay for you?

“The contract I agreed with the club was as follows: two million lira [around €1,000] signing-on fee to be paid immediately, then another three and a half million lira [around €1,800] if I played 34 matches over the next two years. As it happened, I made it to 34 appearances after just one season! They spent six million lira [around €3,000] on me in total. It sounds funny when you think about the amount of money in football nowadays. They pay millions of euros now, not lira!”

When did you make your debut?

“It was away at Bologna on the first day of the season. [Luigi] Brunella, the coach, put his faith in me from the start. [Gyula] Zsengeller was injured and we needed another quality player in midfield. I played, we won 2-1 and from then on the coach never took me out of the starting line-up.”

The Giallorossi finished 14th in your first season at the club, narrowly avoiding relegation…

“That’s right, we were just a few points away from getting relegated to Serie B, but it only delayed the inevitable. That was a modest Roma side – the club didn’t have any great resources to draw on. Thankfully, once we got back into Serie A, [Renato] Sacerdoti came in and everything changed radically. As president, Sacerdoti brought in world-class players like [Alcides] Ghiggia and built a strong side.”

How did the Roma fans react to relegation?

“It was a tragedy. We were heavily criticised and a scandal broke out the papers. Some of my team-mates got caught engaging in some nocturnal activities by the press. There were people around the team in those days who used to set up meetings with a particular type of women. You can imagine what the reaction was when the story broke. Thankfully, I never got involved with any of those people.”

You stayed out of the controversy?

“Yes, I was very young and I had to tell [Vincenzo] Biancone, the sporting director, before I did anything. When I arrived in the capital, I was sent to live with a family in Viale del Vignola. I’m from Vignola, and I went to live in Viale del Vignola in Rome! You couldn’t make it up. I had to tell Biancone everything I did. He’d make me go to his office in Via del Tritone so he could warn me about this and that. I even had to ask his permission to buy a car.”

You had to ask for permission?

“That’s right! I got a Fiat Topolino – not a particularly large car. Biacone only agreed after checking what the engine size was. I was under surveillance from morning until night, but it did my career no end of good as it turned out.”

You mentioned Ghiggia earlier. What was your relationship with him like? He ended up calling his son Arcadio after you.

“That’s right, I tried to warn him off it [laughter]! I’ve never been crazy about the name Arcadio and it’s not very common now, but he liked it and made up his mind. I was his best mate. That said, I got on well with everyone – I’ve always been a very open guy.”

How much did you get paid back then?

“Around 105,000 lira a month [around €54]. It was a high salary because I played for Roma, a team from a city with at least 500,000 inhabitants. Back then, your salary varied according to that kind of thing – the more people who came to see us play, the more we earned each month. Obviously, there was no TV money or other revenue sources back then. It all came down to ticket sales.”

One of the other Hall of Famers in the Class of 2016 is Giorgio Carpi, who was a club official back in your day. What memories do you have of him?

“He was a decent, capable man. I remember one thing in particular: I bought a plot of land in a development that Giorgio had also looked at, before me. As it happened, Giorgio, [Carlo] Galli, [Luciano] Tessari and myself all had houses built in that development, and some of them still live there today. It was a long time ago, but I remember everything as if it were yesterday. I had the best years of my life in Rome.”