When Vincenzo Montella leads his Fiorentina side out at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday, he will get an undoubtedly warm reception. It may well also mark the first visit since he began coaching that the fans of the Giallorossi don’t wish he was in the home dugout.
Under Rudi Garcia, Roma have flourished at the same time as Fiorentina seem to have lost their way under the former Lupi striker. Without that unasked question in the air, Montella’s presence should represent an opportunity to look back on the tremendous survice he performed for the club.
Some players are enigmatic and difficult to pin down, and others have swaths of talents so large that it is almost impossible to guess what they are going to do. Montella, it is fair to say, was neither of those players.
His first goal for Roma, after joining from Sampdoria, was emblematic of his ethos. In his fourth game for the club, strike partner Marco Delvecchio controlled a high ball and ran through on goal; Andrea Mazzantini came out to smother his effort, but Delvecchio still managed to prod the ball towards goal — it was rolling slowly in when Montella ran up and lashed it into the roof of the net.
What followed that goal was typical Montella, too. He wheeled away in delight, arms spread in his famous Aeroplane celebration — the first of 83 he was to perform for Roma. Although capable of scoring all kinds of goals there was a definite trend to the way Montella found the net.
The most memorable performance the Neapolitan enjoyed for Roma was undoubtedly in March 2002, when he was the inspiration behind a 5–1 derby win against Lazio; their biggest win against the Biancocelesti since 1933. Each of the goals represented a different facet of what Montella could do: a showcase within the showpiece.
For the first, he bustled his way in front of a defender to squeeze a low header into the bottom of the net. The second came after Angelo Peruzzi had stopped a Francesco Totti shot; the ball was loose momentarily, and Montella was on the spot to rifle it home. His third came from Totti again, a bullet header from a crossed-in free kick. The fourth, undoubtedly the pick of the bunch, was a work of majesty; he took the ball around 30 yards from goal, took a couple of steps forward and lashed it into the top right corner.
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Although capable of spectacular goals — he had scored a delicious lob against AC Milan the season before, the like of which Totti himself would be proud — Montella was more often found in the box.
If a ball was loose, he pounced.
If it rebounded from goalkeeper, defender or post, he pounced.
It was a clinical instinct which meant that, even when weighed down by injury at the age of 34, he was offered the chance to re-sign for his beloved Giallorossi. His 12 substitute appearances tallied just 164 minutes, but it was the right place to say farewell.
A striker cannot always be judged on goal tallies, though when fit, Montella always made double figures. A great cannot always be judged on trophies, though he has a Scudetto in his cabinet. He made his fans happy and did what he was there to do.
As such, his coaching career is something of a lap of honor, after leaving the club as caretaker coach in 2011; he gets to visit Roma once every season and be amongst old friends, something of an annual pilgrimage down memory lane. The Romanisti get to see an old hero and — for now, at least — hope that his record (just one defeat to Fiorentina in nine games for Roma) lives on.
Follow Marco Jackson on Twitter at: @Marco4J
