Never thought Materazzi would be my manager one day: Chennaiyin's Italian anchorman Blasi

Make a list of the clubs to have finished in the top 10 of the Serie A over the past three years. Manuele Blasi has played for all of them - AS Roma, Juventus, Napoli, Fiorentina and Parma. Add to this the Italian national team and a smattering of other clubs in the country. His tough tackling no-nonsense approach has also earned him a ‘commits fouls often’ trait on whoscored.com. [caption id=“attachment_2470936” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Manuel Blasi vies for the ball during Chennaiyin vs Goa. ISL[/caption] He’s also been through the emotional turmoil of being a Juventus player when the Italian match-fixing scandal robbed the Old Lady of two league titles and saw them relegated to Serie B. It goes without saying, Blasi is a tough character from the streets of Perugia — a typical Italian defensive midfielder who says he “likes to break play.” But despite his strong character, the 35-year-old is settling down to life under his good friend and Chennaiyin FC boss Marco Materazzi — something that he never imagined would happen. “Didn’t think Marco would be my manager one day. In terms of friendship I have a very good relationship with him so I knew we would be meeting again soon, but to be honest never thought it would be like this,” Blasi told Firstpost before the Indian Super League kicked off in Chennai. Blasi also tells us that he and Materazzi ‘grew up together’ in Perugia. Their houses were opposite each others’ and they have a very strong friendship. This relation however, needs to be put on the backburner when it comes to the ISL. “We were living just in front of each others’ houses in Perugia and we grew up together. But despite the friendship, there is a line between manager and friends. There is that respect,” Blasi said. But had it not been for the World Cup winning former Italian centre-back, Blasi may not have come to India. In a candid confession, he admits that he was ’not really aware’ of the ISL before Materazzi spoke to him about it. “I wasn’t aware of the ISL but since my really good relationship with Marco it took a few words to convince me and I always wanted to go outside Europe,” he adds. Materazzi rarely talks about himself and his managerial style. It’s pretty much out there that he’s not defensive and believes in a completely different philosophy when you compare his playing position. Blasi affirms this judgement, saying that Materazzi is not like a typical Italian manager. In fact, even if he wanted, he couldn’t be. “Marco is not like a typical Italian manager (here). In Italy, it is based a lot on tactics which he may not be able to use in India. But he is a good manager because he has really good adaptation skills. So now in India there are so many different things and what helps him is his greatest quality — the skill to adapt to every situation,” Blasi said. The Italian didn’t play the first match and has got only 93 minutes under his belt as he hopes to ‘get settled and get better and better.’ But in these 93 minutes, he’s thrown eight tackles already. That’s an average of one tackle every 11.25 minutes. Denson Devdas, who has played 248 minutes in the ISL so far, has an average of making one tackle every 10.78 minutes. He’s been the most destructive in the tournament so far, so Blasi isn’t that far behind. Chennaiyin’s best tackler, Thoi Singh, makes one every 13.66 minutes. “I’m a generous footballer. I never back down and I am someone who will give everything for the club he plays and play as a teammate and not alone. I’m more of a defensive midfielder so I actually try to break the play and trigger counter-attacks — so yes, not much on the offensive, but I like breaking moves,” Blasi says matter-of-factly. He hopes to score some goals in a career which has seen him find the net just once in 376 professional appearances across all competitions. He acknowledges that this could be easier given the ‘slightly lower level of football’ compared to what he’s experienced, but also knows that he will need to give his all to accomplish something so rare - a goal from Blasi. Chennaiyin have returned to winning ways after their 4-0 win over FC Goa and will hope to continue the same against Mumbai City FC on 16 December. The writer tweets @TheFalseNo9