by Guglielmo Vicario’s journey to the Premier League can be traced back to Fontanafredda. Or more accurately to the small town nightclubs in north-east Italy, which were as much a part of the pre-match routine of the semi-professional club as they were set pieces and tactics.
Vicario wasn’t getting a game in Udinese’s academy so he moved 100km away to play with bankers and builders in Serie D, making it his own. There was a battle against the recession, when his teammates saw their jobs, and then maximized their Friday nights in town even though they played on Sunday.
From a very young age, Vicario is used to adapting quickly, as he did at Fontanafredda as a teenager when he was away from the gilded life of academy football. A big character like Vicario has to fit in immediately at Tottenham. He has filled Hugo Lloris’s gloves this season, and amazingly he has yet to make an error that leads to a goal. But almost exactly nine years ago he was playing against Union Arzignano Chiampo in front of several hundred fans.
“Someone worked in a bank,” he said. “Someone else was a construction worker. Ordinary jobs, not professional footballers, so much respect for what they did and what they are still doing because they are still playing football and working. It is a huge commitment for them as they also have wives and children. So trying to do both at the same time is not easy.
“We’d train four times a week and then we’d play on Sundays, so on Fridays we’d have dinner, all together, every Friday night, and then we’d go clubbing together. Some lads on Saturday, they weren’t working so we were off on Saturday so we had dinner and clubbing all together and then we play on Sunday.
“It was a big moment to be together and we had a big season. It was the first season for the club in Serie D. And we achieved our goal because we were not relegated. It was a great achievement for us and a very important experience for my life.”
Vicario has a seriousness, rooted in how he started in football. He also played in the fourth tier for Venezia where he was called “Tegoina” – The Green Bean. “I arrived when I was 18. I was very tall and very skinny. I wore a green suit. So they called me a green bean because I looked distant,” he said.
From there he played at Cagliari and Empoli before coming onto Spurs’ radar with a recruitment team monitoring Italian football as part of Fabio Paratici’s reign as sporting director. An unknown when he arrived in the summer, Spurs had done their homework on a goalkeeper with the character and skill for the Premier League.
He cares. That much was demonstrated when he tackled Ryan Sessegnon at the final whistle of the FA Cup win against Burnley. But there is also a human side to it. His family invited a Ukrainian mother, Hanna, and son Milan into their home in Udine after they escaped the Russian invasion, while Milan’s father stayed behind to fight.
“Maybe it wasn’t the best thing to do at that moment because when you talk after winning, it’s the best way to celebrate,” he said of the Sessegnon incident. “And if you have to say something, the right way to do it is in the dressing room. It was just about the structure we had in the set pieces, we weren’t set up well. And it was their last chance to score, I was angry about that because it was the last ball and they had a good chance.”
Spurs have certainly won the summer battle for goalkeepers. Manchester United also turned to Italy for Andre Onana, but the Cameroon goalkeeper has made a series of high-profile errors leading to goals. Vicario, nicknamed Venom but known to his teammates as Vic, was impressed.
He hashtags “Living The Dream” on his social media posts and says he would be signed in blood for Spurs to turn to him.
“I would walk here if I had to,” he said. “And yes, sign in my own blood. It was an opportunity I could not miss. So I was ready to come from Italy to the UK, walking. Or running! And if I didn’t have a pen or anything, I would be signed in blood, cutting myself and signing with my own blood.
“This is my dream. I said from day one, I want to live this dream everyday and make it come true and now it is true. But I’ve got to keep working and doing what I’ve done so far and focus on myself and what the gaffer wants from the team and get through that.”
Recognition for Italy will be next after progressing at Spurs. He has already received a call-up to the squad, during Roberto Mancini’s reign, and he wants to emulate his hero Dino Zoff, who is from the same area in Italy, or Gianluigi Buffon, whose shirt was hanging over his bed as a child.
“Zoff is from a small town in the countryside in the Udine area. He is an iconic figure for Italy and my region. I had the pleasure of meeting him once. He told me: ‘I follow you all the time. I watch all the games. I am very proud of you because you started at the bottom and now you are playing in the best league.’ I was playing for Empoli last season,” said Vicario.
“me [also] he called him when he turned 81, on the phone. He was very surprised by that and a little emotional from that call. It was a big moment [previously] to get a chance to meet an important star like him who lifted the World Cup for Italy. Of course he is a huge person.”
