The Assistant Coach (27/?)
Title: The Assistant Coach
Rating: PG
Pairing: Antonio Conte/Gianluigi Buffon
Character crew: Bernd Schneider, Arturo Vidal, Antonio Conte, Gianluigi Buffon and other members of Juventus FC crew and players from other leagues.
Disclaimer: Everything displayed in this text is entire fiction and made up by Chelsea Lady
Warning: Suicide and laboral harrasment implied. Unbetaed.
Summary: The Italian Job is the most important job ever taken, specially when is pioneer for being the first openly homosexual assistant coach
in Italy. Prepare for the change.
In this part - First interview of Antonio Conte and Gianluigi Buffon together as a couple on Italian TV after A-2 Speech
Previously on "The Assistant Coach"
It was very difficult for any Italian channel for pick up them for speaking the whole truth. More than one week after Agnelli's death were trying
to contact Antonio or Gianluigi to speak with the press. But indeed, certain TV channel offered them a discrete place and not a press conference and
finally in April 9th, 2013, Antonio Conte accepted with his couple, Gianluigi Buffon, to talk to Italian TV for the first time.
Antonio didn't want to accept at the beggining because Italian media had some kind of morbo about treating certain topics. Specially with the Schneiders.
But Agnelli, didn't get what he wanted: to mock and finally sink Antonio's career. He got the opposite reaction, because
people at social networks named Antonio's speech as A-2 Speech [A Due Dicorso], for the date it was made. In Twitter, the hashtag #A2Discorso
was trending topic, but then it got broke by #RIPAndreaAgnelli.
For the first time, Antonio and Gianluigi will have an interview in the same studio, in a well known sports channel in Italy, they will talk as a couple.
And not precisely about sports... they will talk about love.
The special broadcasting was with a well known commentator that indeed caused problems inside Italy, specially with Antonio Cassano.
Bernd and Arturo, so as juventini and non-juventini inside Italy were watching the interview. The rest of the world would execute the streaming via internet.
This time the Coming Out would be official. The real Coming Out was in April 2nd, but then everything get screwed up due Andrea's suicide.
And the commentator, who would be the interviewer, began like this:
"Here, Antonio Conte will speak not as the allenatore he is, but the man, the human being he really is.
In April 2nd, 2013, after an intimate video was leaked, he dared to speak against the press and finally told his own truth: his heart is in hands...of a man.
For the first time, Antonio Conte will talk with us, with Gianluigi Buffon; Juventus goalkeeper and also World Cup winner.
Buona sera, Antonio and Gianluigi."
"Buona sera..." Antonio responded.
The first image was Antonio and Gianluigi with suits and holding hands.
"So glad to be here" Gianluigi answered.
"How is all this process going on? I know that is very long, it takes sometimes a whole life to realize about the real identity..."
"Well" Antonio answers "From every point of view, it was a long and painful process, as for me, so as for Gianluigi."
"Certainly, is so hard to realize the fact that...you love that person...and you can't concrete that love for several reasons. Family, children... but as long as you can explain to them what really happens, then everything gets clear." Buffon points.
"Did you feel the same as Antonio? A long and painful process?"
"Long, but not so painful. I tried to do my best on the pitch, for the Nazionale, hearing every instruction, being with my partners and do the best
I can."
"That is what Gigi got but I don't. That thing is called sublimation. Indeed he tried to sublimate the process through playing, through raising his children,
so as I..."
"But, coming back to you Mister Conte. Why a long and painful process?"
"I suffered a lot. I didn't want to lose my family or my job because of the way I really love" Togno answers "indeed, even I fell in self-harming.
I had several self-cut injuries in my left arm... now they are only lines. Just look."
"Wow...painful just in physical or in other ways?"
"In every single sense of the word" Antonio answers. "With...with...every cut... I felt like... my heart would shut up about these kind of feelings.
Is just that with pain you try to erase another pain, but you can't control. There's blood, you get covered with bondages, patches... but you still
remember your true love."
"Painful in every single sense. I understand Antonio so much in that sense. I always saw him like in a golden cage, if you know what I'm saying, I saw
him in times hopeless..."
"In times hopeless, but he always recovers hope to me." Antonio adds.
"Well, I pointed parts of the speech, the Aprile Due Discorso as the social networks nickname it, in one part you said 'I respected his childhood.
His innocence.
I waited for him to become a man.' ... why these words? Did you fell in love with him when he... hadn't the proper age to fall in love with you?"
"In the speech I tried to set the record straight, for not writing things out of context" Antonio answers "I met him in a game of Parma and Lecce schools.
The president of the team made me go there, because he wanted to get contact with younger players in scouting progress.
He was only 13 years old and I was 22. In every country of this world, a love like that would be outlaw.
I wanted to clear that I fell in love with him, but it wasn't my intention of commiting any kind of abuse. I let him grow up in whole sense of the word,
so one day he would come to him and say: 'Look, I love you, I want to be with you, touch me.'"
"So...what about you Gianluigi? You were only thirteen years old when you saw Antonio for the first time...how it was...you fell in love with him or he
with you?"
"Well, I think it was mutual" Buffon answers "because in the first half of that match I looked for the glove. I saved the first half without it.
And then, someone picked up the glove and I forgot that... I was drinking water with the hand which I was without it and I left it under the bench and
on the glove, there was the bottle for drinking of it. I left the bottle, but then, whoops! And someone came to the bench and he was...crawling...and
picked it up. Then, he was stading out there, with his hair and those eyes, huge and lighter than mine's. He waited until the second half and said:
'Hey, this is yours' and I answered with a simple thank you. That smile...that smile and those glowing eyes..." Gianluigi remembers with emotion.
"The way how he answered and concluded with that smile upon his face so as his eyes, darker than mine's made me realize that not only there was love.
It was love for football, that I wanted to be in football forever. I got that emotion inside my mind, and certainly I couldn't say: 'Hey, I fell in love
with a 13-year old boy' because the way of law...it would be assurdo. But then I was very happy inside..." Antonio added.
"Some people realize about their homosexuality when they are kids, others when they are teenagers and others in middle age crisis... what about you?"
"Who? Me?" Antonio asks.
"Or me?"
"Okay, you first, Gianluigi."
"Certainly...I thought that fall in love with someone older than me was a silly fact. In that match I realized about it. But I didn't know his name, nor
anything. I just fell in love with the guy who picked up my glove, but I didn't know that was Antonio Conte, nor anything. I never tried to kiss another
boy, I tried to date girls; it worked in part. Alena appeared in my life so much later...kids... in that moment the process was in...hiatus...
but I always loved Antonio"
"What about you, Antonio?"
"A little bit later than Gigi I think" he answers giggling "I was almost 30. I stole a kiss to a teammate and I felt...tickles..."
Gigi laughed because he knew who the player was.
"But I think it was so much earlier, when I was in Lecce. But I didn't dare to steal a kiss..."
"Me neither..." Buffon added.
"Well, after commercials I have other questions to tell you..."
"Okay..."
Behind the scenes, when commercials began, Antonio told to Gianluigi:
"Don't dare to say it, but I spoke to Norwegian Embassy in Italy and they told me that we can
travel there to get married...and also we could get the license"
"Cool! Did you bought it?"
"Certainly you gotta pay a quantity for the paper and also for getting
married outside of the Register office. It was cheap. Our trip is for...April 19th"
"Oh, my God!"
The Leccesi and the Carraresi were making out. The interviewer laughs loud with it.
"Oh, sorry that it wasn't recorded...ahahahahha..."
Then, they come back to the interview.
"Hey, your eyes are glowing...both of you"
Both laugh very loud. More than three minutes.
"Ahh...is just that we can't believe that we are living a lovestory at last."
"Let me talk about...about Bernd Schneider..."
"He's my best friend." Antonio answers.
"Bernd Schneider is known for being the first footballer of coming out of the closet and also his husband, Arturo plays in Serie A and you are his trainer...
is that such a coincidence?"
"Not coincidence after all. Indeed I treat Arturo like any other player inside my squadra. On pitch everybody is equal. Arturo Schneider is such a
wonderful case of releasing and integration."
"But... how is your relationship with Bernd Schneider? He made you take this decision?"
"Bernardo, well, sorry, but is difficult for me to say his original name" Antonio clears giggling "Indeed, he was the first one knowing it, but he
didn't made me take the decision, he just made me feel confident to do it, but the real one who made me make it, was my daughter."
"Really?"
"Indeed, is very uncommon to tell a 5-year old girl you are gay. But I tried to find the accurate words and also the speech to tell with easy and simple
words that I was one. But I had more trust in my daughter than Elizabetta..."
"Why your daughter and not your wife?"
"Because I believe in the innocence and mind opening from children. Bernardo has three wonderful children. The third is very special. I saw him with
Arturo and playing with his children and realized that his family is like any other else. So I did it for her, for not growing up into a lie."
"Certainly...I didn't have time to tell my children about it. Is very hard the fact you can't see them for your sexual orientation. Is not my intention
to pollute them or saying 'be gay like me'." Gianluigi said crying. Antonio just hold his hand. "But indeed, Alena knew it since the beginning...
you know, female intuition."
"Well, I would like to make probably a... polemic question... is about the video released some time ago. It was your intention to release it or
it was a malicious leakage?"
"The second one. A malicious leakage" Buffon answered "Andrea Agnelli sold the videotape to a known site, which leaked it, because his original
intention was sink Antonio's career and mine's. It was a horrible process for us. It was recorded thirteen years ago, in 2000's. He mocked and abused
of Massimo Carrera because of this video."
"Really? I didn't know that..."
"For the first time we'll say it in public, yes, Massimo Carrera was laborally harrased by Andrea Agnelli. For that reason, he presented the resignment to
the club."
"Does this crisis made him to suffer that overdose in the half time of Juventus- AC Milan?"
"The constant mobbing (sic) made him try to commit suicide, not once, but twice"
"I know that sounds very annoying or polemic too, but...Andrea Agnelli's suicide was a signal of cowardy or because he wasn't prepared for this new era
of Calcio?"
"The new era is already installed. With Arturo Schneider" Antonio answers "he was hired because of his talent, not for his sexuality. Indeed about the
suicide I'd like to say that he wasn't prepared to live this new era. I believe he was fighting for family values, but more than that he believed in
some way that he was living the death of manhood in Calcio. I think he was heartbroken with the disappearing of an illusion. He knew Arturo was married
to a man and let him be in Juve, but why he couldn't cope with the fact that the allenatore was too?"
"As far as I know, I read that at least in clubs around Europe, at least one or two are gay inside the squad" Gianluigi refers "I think Agnelli was prepared
to recieve ONE gay player, but not having inside the same squad two or three... is not necessary to say that for those three, the entire squad is gay."
"Just one more question about the video...do you think now, Italian people respect you even more or they mock of you?"
"Every Italian, juventino or non-juventino knew that the video leakage was so simple as junk" Buffon answered
"I think that our stamina and winning mentality is what really prevailed inside their minds. Just that."
"Is manhood dead in Calcio?"
"No" both answered at the same time.
Antonio giggles and adds:
"Manhood is an anachronic concept for me, for Gigi and everyone at least inside my squad."
"Manhood is not necessary expressed in their sexuality. Arturo is married to a man and he acts very fierce, for that reason we call him 'Il Guerriero'.
Imagine that in ancient Greece, well, you watched the famous movie '300' (Trecento) with the famous acclaim..."
After that he stands up on the chair and screams:
"This is Sparta!!"
Antonio laughs a lot, so as the interviewer. Gianluigi giggles and sits down.
"Well, I know only that extract but...."
"Okay... I read lately that those 300 warriors weren't nothing more than 150 couples. Those soldiers were the equivalent of infantry nowadays.
With that example I want to let you know that in Greece that was already an institution, so as in Sparta... they were fierce, but also had the sense
of protection to each other and increasing bonds. For that reason they were really, but really famous. You can see many other examples:
Achilles and Patroclus, Alexander the Great and Hephastion. Ehrm, à propòs (sic) Alexander the Great had an empire for his own! Ha!
History certainly made a slap for those who say that manhood is dead!"
"You are interested in those topics..."
"I research so much. But I can compare that situation to football. Every player is a warrior, but they don't have weapons, but ball it is, running
it is. My gloves are my protection...and the audience is the one who celebrates the victory of those warriors. They aren't thinking: 'whoa, this is
gay, this is not'. Speculations begins in their own minds."
"Speculation is on fic writers." Antonio added. "Once, I saw an interview of Arturo on the pitch for his first time with the Nazionale Tedesca..."
"Nationalmannschaft" Buffon translates.
"Wow!"
"Well, the journalist asked him about his private situation and he said 'If I get laid with him, well...it's my problem,
not of journalists! My private life is my private life... so I'll not do it. People want to see me play, not if I kiss
or hug Bernd... leave it that for fic writers.', so in that sense, Gianluigi is absolutely right."
"So, after the match, is in fans' imagination."
"That's absolutely right" Gianluigi answered.
"Did you...project as family?"
"Ovvio!!" both saying holding hands.
"I know that legally we cannot do it, but I have my daughter and also another already on our way. But we'll choose a country we gonna get married" Conte added.
"For being precise, in Norway"
"So, you will travel to Norway for getting married...why?"
"Because... because in their laws gender is neutral. And also we can adopt children. In April, May, probably..."
"Yes...we must plan our trip first and we think about...an old brotherhood with another squadra bianconera, Rosenborg. So, we think to celebrate this
union with tifosi from Italy and from Norway...it would be so great..."
"Ahhaa...okay... why Norway and not Spain, or the Netherlands for example???"
"I made some research" the Carraresi answers "And Spain is too mainstream for us, also for getting married there is required to be Spanish-speaker
so as having Spanish citizenship. And for Netherlands you must need five years as permanent resident. Being hired as loan for five years is non-sense for
us."
"How your parents takes this process? That question is for both."
"About my parents, well...my father passed away some time ago, but my mother had some sort of sixth sense. She didn't talked to me in one week, but then
she cam back to do it, because a son never stops to be one. And you, Gigi? What about you?"
"My parents are...very dissapointed. After the A-2 Speech they don't talk to me. They have some kind of distance with me. They don't let me to see my kids.
Actually they live with my ex-wife and kids. Certainly she wants to lock them into a bubble. My only intention is to make a family with Antonio, to bring
her daughter more siblings... but I will shall my efforts to present my second appeal at Family Court in Turin. My first appeal was denied. If I don't make
it, I will try to appeal to the European Union Constitutional Court. Well...that's all...I'm really sad...
but Antonio and his daughter trace the path of a new hope for us."
"Okay, thanks to talk for us, exclusively and good luck...any word for finishing?"
"Fino alla fine. Forza Juve" they said at the same time. And concluded with a soft kiss.
tbc. 01-04-2013