Antonio Cassano has added to his playboy reputation by admitting that a night of ‘sex and food’, followed by football would be the ‘perfect’ night for him. The well travelled Italian, who can count Real Madrid, Roma, Inter Milan and AC Milan amongst the clubs he has played for, also admitted that without the ‘footballer’ moniker, he would not have enjoyed much success with women.
The 33-year-old fantasista, now at Serie A club Sampdoria, recently admitted in an interview that the excess of his 20’s had ruined his career, although he does remember the nights involving food and sex with a great deal of affection.
Sex, food and football - Perfect
In his autobiography Dico Tutto, Cassano had admitted that the perfect night included sex and food, writing “In Madrid, I had a friend who was a hotel waiter. His job was to bring me three or four pastries after I had sex.
“He would bring the pastries up the stairs, I would escort the woman to him and we would make an exchange: he would take the girl and I would take the pastries.”
“Sex and then food, a perfect night.”
When Spanish newspaper AS recently conducted an interview with the Italian, they prodded him about that passage, asking if he would include football as well, to which Cassano replied “Perfect! Those are the best things. Until February 2, 2008 eh? Then I met my wife. But until then, yes.”
Sex never hindered form at Roma
The Italian was the world’s most expensive teenager when he moved from Bari to Roma for a princely sum of 60 billion Italian lire (around €30 million) from Bari to Roma, aged 19. The youngster could command such a fee after a stunning winner for Bari against Inter, where he controlled a 40-yard long ball with the back of his heel, headed the ball into his stride and dribbled around Laurent Blanc and Javier Zanetti before shooting the ball into the net.
Cassano was a national celebrity and enjoyed many nights of amore, but usually recovered to play football with aplomb. When asked by AS to name his most memorable night, Cassano had a typically excessive memory, saying “On the eve of a 4-0 win over Juventus, I stole the keys to Trigoria [Roma’s training ground] and came back at six o’clock in the morning.
“I had my best night on the pitch, I won a penalty and scored two goals.”
Real Madrid was an aphrodisiac
The Italian was sold to Real Madrid for a cut-price €6 million after Roma had grown tired of his antics, but a move to another country did not stop Cassano’s nightly exertions, as he found that his status as a Real Madrid footballer overcame his pock-marked face, as Cassano is brutally honest about his prospects, given his appearance.
When AS asked him if he was addicted to sex, Cassano was quite honest, saying “Yes. When you’re 20 and like girls, there’s a force that allows you to do it every day. And I had the chance!
“Cassano was a Madrid player! If I had done anything else, no-one would have looked at me… Like my mother! I’m good, but I’m not handsome.”
Fabio Capello was his manager at Roma and the 2006/07 season at Real Madrid, and coined the term ‘cassanata’ in reference to his poor team ethic; but with the Italian upto his old antics in Spain as well, did not offer Cassano much playing time, especially given his poor fitness.
Struggles with weight still persist
Cassano admitted his love for food, which meant that he was overweight when he joined Madrid, saying “When I eat pasta, bread, sweets, ham I am happy. When I joined Real Madrid, I weighed 93 kilograms. I am 1.75 metres tall – so my ideal weight should have been 83 kilos.”
“I’m addicted to food, even now. As a friend said, when you eat good things, you get fat. Obviously if you eat a lot every day, you are a fool, and I was a fool for 20 years. Now I can’t do it.”
However, the 33-year-old has no regrets about his past, claiming he is happy, saying “I was a total disaster for the first 16 years of my life. You can call me a rebel or a madman, but I can’t change how I started. I’m happy this way.”
