The journey that took Guglielmo Vicario to the Premier League traces back to Fontanafredda. Or rather, to the nightclubs of the small town in northeastern Italy, where they are as much a part of the semi-professional club’s pre-match routine as set-pieces and tactics.
Vicario wasn’t getting games in Udinese’s academy, so he moved 100km away to play with the bankers and builders in Serie D, and that turned out to be his doing. There was a battle against relegation, which saw their team-mates juggling work and then maxing out their Friday night in town despite playing on Sunday.
Vicario was used to adapting quickly from an early age, as he did at Fontanafredda when he was a world away from the glamorous life of academy football in his younger years. It takes a great character like Vicario to be able to adapt to Tottenham immediately. He has filled the gloves of Hugo Lloris this season and remarkably has yet to make a mistake 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 at the bank,” he said. “Another person was a construction worker. Normal jobs, not professional football players, I have a lot of respect for what they do and what they do because they still play football and work. This is a big responsibility for them because they also have spouses and children. So trying to do both at the same time is not easy.
“We would train four times during the week and then play on Sundays, so every Friday night we would all have dinner together and then we would all go to the club together. Some friends didn’t work on Saturday, so we had Saturday off, we all had dinner together, went to clubs, and then played games on Sunday.
“It was a great moment to be together and we had a great season. It was our club’s first season in Serie D and we achieved our goal because we did not get relegated. It was a great success for us and a very important experience in my life.”
There is a sincerity in Vicario that comes from the way he started playing football. He also played in Venezia’s fourth tier and was nicknamed “Tegoina” – Green Bean. “I came when I was 18. I was too tall and too skinny. I wore a green suit. “They called me green bean because I looked like a bean from a distance,” he said.
From there, he played for Cagliari and Empoli before landing on Spurs’ radar and a recruitment team monitoring Italian football as part of Fabio Paratici’s regime as sporting director. An unknown name come the summer, Spurs had done their homework on a goalkeeper with the character and skill set to suit the Premier League.
He cares. Much was made evident when he got into an argument with Ryan Sessegnon at the final whistle of the FA Cup win over Burnley. But he also has a human side. The family invited Ukrainian mother Hanna and her son Milan to their home in Udine after they fled the Russian occupation, and Milan’s father stayed behind to fight.
“Maybe it wasn’t the best thing to do at that moment because when you talk after you win, the best way is to celebrate,” he said of the Sessegnon incident. “And if you have to say something, the right way is to say it in the dressing room. It was just about the structure in the set-pieces, we didn’t settle well. And that was the last chance they had to score, I was angry about that because it was the last ball and they had good chances.”
Spurs have certainly won the summer battle against goalkeepers. Manchester United also turned to Italy for Andre Onana, but the Cameroonian goalkeeper made a series of crucial errors that resulted in goals. Vicario, nicknamed Venom but known as Vic to his teammates, impressed him.
He uses the hashtag “Living the Dream” in his social media posts and says he will sign in blood to make a move to Spurs happen.
“I would walk here if I had to,” he said. “And yes, I am signing my own blood. It was an opportunity I couldn’t miss. So I was ready to walk from Italy to England. Or running! And if I didn’t have a pen or anything, I would sign with blood, I would cut myself and sign with my own blood.
“This is my dream. From the first day I said that I want to live this dream every day and make it a reality, and now it has come true. But I have to keep working and do what I have done so far; I just have to focus on myself and what the master wants from the team and go through it.”
Next up will be Italian recognition after his progress at Spurs. Called up to the team during Roberto Mancini’s reign, he wants to emulate his hero Dino Zoff, from the same part of Italy, or Gianluigi Buffon, whose shirt hung over his bed as a child.
“Zoff comes from a small town in the countryside of the Udine region. He is an iconic figure for Italy and my region. I had the honor of meeting him once. He said to me: ‘I follow you all the time. I watch all the matches. I’m so proud of you because you started from the bottom and now you’re playing in the top league.’ “I was playing for Empoli last season,” Vicario said.
“I [also] When he turned 81, he called her on the phone. He was very surprised by this and a little touched by this call. It was a big moment [previously] To have the opportunity to meet such an important star as himself, who lifted the World Cup for Italy. Of course he is a great person.”