The striker replied: ‘Clearly you are still in bed’. With a smile he recalls when Viktoria texted him one morning complaining he had forgot about their eight-months anniversary and did not care about her any more. “I never forget these kind of things,” he says. After the first month he bought her a hundred roses, after two months he bought her a cake with their picture on it and after nine months a piece of fruit with a chocolate No9 on top of it. Unabashedly, completely without embarrassment, he reveals how he celebrates the monthly anniversary of his relationship with his girlfriend, Viktoria. Now everybody looks at dumb reality soaps or practically lives on social media.”Ĭult hero: Graziano Pellè was captain of his former club, Feyenoord. He would look in the eyes of his date, not on his phone. The man would always keep the door open for her in a restaurant. “There was a lot of respect, especially for women.
“Italians in particular were known for being people with charm, style and class,” Pellè told me with eyes that were as bright as his hair. You could tell by his 60s haircut, which a lot of young boys in Rotterdam still sport today, and eclectic wardrobe. He absorbed the stories about the club legends of Feyenoord. At Feyenoord’s De Kuip stadium, I saw him nearly kiss an old photograph of one of the Dutch club’s icons, Coen Moulijn. He loves tradition, ancient fairy tales and classic pictures. In many ways you sense he was born in the wrong decade. The Manchester United manager demanded he was bought by AZ Alkmaar, where he was building what would prove a championship-winning team. The tall target man made it to the Italy youth squads, though, and during the European Under-21 Championship in 2007, which was held in Holland, he caught the attention of Louis van Gaal. Without it you’ll never get a good grade in the paper.” I was thinking too much when I was in front of the goal. He was by then out on loan at Crotone in Serie B. His dedication in the youth teams of his home-town club Lecce paid off with his senior debut in January 2004 but it took him two years to find the net.
But it was too hard to combine and the changing from normal shoes to high heels to football boots was killing me, let alone all the training.” “Balance, discipline, co-ordination I think I move easy for a tall striker. It helped him with his other hobby: football. I could spin more than the other guys,” he says. “I think it was my advantage that I was tall. Graziano and his sister were strongly inspired by their mother and they became junior ballroom champions. The family used to go dancing every Saturday night. He also knew his father, Roberto, would display a true Italian temper if his son stayed too long at the wrong place, which could easily be at an innocent piazza playing calcetto (five-a-side) just like every other Italian kid. A new scooter? He would rather sit next to his grandfather in the car. In his district boys can easily choose a different path, one that leads to crime, but he did not care about materialistic things. Pellè has his family to thank for everything. “I’m so sorry he can’t see my current success,” his grandson says. Pipe died six years ago, according to the striker, from a broken heart following the death of his wife. He always had the same advice: ‘Graziano, if you don’t shoot, you won’t score’,” Pellè says.
Graziano played football in the house with his nephew Alessandro, driving his mother, Doriana, crazy, but it was his grandfather who was his footballing influence. The entire family Pellè lived together in a concrete villa in Monteroni built by Graziano’s grandfather, Pipe. On Sunday he and his team face their toughest test yet of a hitherto superb season when the league champions, Manchester City, come to St Mary’s.Īll of it could have been so different, though. It is fair to say Pellè has been the revelation of the season so far. This season he has scored six Premier League goals for the surprise high-fliers Southampton, was named the league’s player of the month for September and made his debut for Italy. Had he not booked a holiday to Ibiza, where by chance he met a friend of Ronald Koeman’s son, leading to a move to Feyenoord, his promising yet fluctuating career might never have taken off. Less seriously, he could easily have chosen ballroom dancing as his profession after becoming national under-12s champion in partnership with his sister. He grew up in Monteroni di Lecce in the heel of Italy, where young boys can have their heads turned the wrong way and never find a way back. F or Graziano Pellè, there have been many potential pitfalls.
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