Even during the core Gazzetta years, AC Milan and Juventus dominated the title race much in the same way the Old Firm have done in Scotland, but Richardson recalls the strength of Italian football at the time as adding to the general appeal.
“Between 1989 and 1998, nine of the 10 European Cup finals had an Italian side in them,” he says. “Four were won. It was the kind of dominance not seen since.”
It seemed that every club had a wealthy local “padrone” as Richardson calls them, each of whom had seemingly endless sums of lira to lavish on the world’s best.
“They would curry favour in their city, demonstrating their largesse by spending large sums of money on players that they didn’t always need,” he explains.
Arguably that sums up what made Italian football so compelling.
“AC Milan and Arrigo Sacchi drove what made Italian clubs so successful in that era,” Richardson suggests. “Sacchi’s story is incredible. They were far and away the best club in the world at the time.
“Some of the presidents were a bit mad and fans seemed to enjoy hearing stories of a successful season being rewarded by a certain padrone with the gift of a horse to their coach.”
His favourite interview? Roberto Baggio, perhaps the most famous Italian player of the 90s. The Divine Ponytail who had lit up Italia 90.
Combining grace with technique and a seeming moodiness, Baggio summed up the attraction of football in Italy.
In the pre-internet days, scarce access to these foreign stars made them even more interesting.
“There was something so special about him, he had a mystique,” Richardson recalls.
“I also loved Vialli, a thinker, incredibly nice guy, who came from a noble family in Italy and reached the top of the game. It remains quite unusual to have that kind of back story.”
Then there were the imports, Gabriel Batistuta, Ruud Gullit, George Weah, Zinedine Zidane, the original Ronaldo. World transfer records routinely broken, seemingly season on season. Goals from another planet weekend on weekend.
In Italy, the term is “Sprezzatura” – the art of making style look effortless. This was Serie A in the 90s and Richardson was there for all the big moments.
“I was in the San Siro for George Weah’s famous goal against Verona and Youri Djorkaeff’s volley against Roma,” he says. For younger readers, both are worth watching on YouTube.
“It was the era of the great number 10s, none more so than here in Naples and Diego Maradona, albeit he predated the Gazzetta days.
“There was a poetic beauty to that, even when a lot of the teams were set up defensively. The 10 was the one player who got free licence and, as such, they were venerated.”
