We're One Family

Apr 20 2008 By Gavin Berry In Florence

Prandelli: Club Is My Life Since I Lost Beloved Wife Rangers V Fiorentina Uefa Cup Semi-Final, 1st Leg Thursday, Kick-Off 7.45pm, Live Stv

FIORENTINA gaffer Cesare Prandelli admits football has kept him sane since the death of his wife Manuela.

The Viola boss takes his side to Glasgow this week for the first leg of their UEFA Cup semi-final tie with Rangers.

And on Thursday night the visitors' dug out at Ibrox, a capacity crowd and 90 minutes of action will provide the distraction he needs.

Without football Prandelli is lost. Lost without his partner of more than 30 years whose life was so cruelly taken away at the age of just 45 last November after a brave seven-year battle with cancer.

It's a story that has touched not only the Serie A club but also the entire city of Florence - where the Light Blues will visit for the return game on May 1.

Banners flutter from the lamp posts en route to the Artemio Franchi Stadium with Prandelli's picture and the message "we stick together at the most difficult times".

In the first game after his wife's funeral, at home to Inter Milan, supporters threw roses on to the pitch in an afternoon full of emotion.

On the park Cesare's players have certainly responded too.

After a blip around the time of the death they now look like beating European champions AC Milan to a Champions League spot by finishing fourth in Serie A.

Speaking about his sad loss in a terrible tale which puts football into perspective, Prandelli said: "How am I now?

"Well, I'm existing. I can breathe when I'm with my children Carolina and Nicolo.

"We're trying to work out together how to start again.

"The football field, my players and our matches are the things that bring me relief. When I'm onmy own I'm lost."

Prandelli spoke about his final days with Manuela when he had quit his post as Roma boss to nurse her.

Of the day she died the former Juventus player, 49, said: "It was a Monday. Right up to 10 o'clock the day before she had been extremely lucid.

"In those last hours, me and my children lay in her bed beside her.We gave her hugs and kept talking to her.

"The medics told us the last thing terminally-ill people lose is their hearing - they usually recognise their family's voices.

"I will always carry her last words inside me but cannot repeat them. It's too hard."

Prandelli was just making his way in the game as a defensive midfielder with Cremonese when he first met Manuela.

From that moment on they were inseparable.

He said: "I met her in Orzinuovi, the town near Brescia where I was born.

"I was playing in Serie B with Cremonese and was coming back from a game. I fancied a hot chocolate and there she was at the bar with a friend.

"We only looked at each other briefly but liked each other straight away.

"The next day I picked her up from school. I was 18 and she was not even 15.We never left each other's side from then on.

"We got married in 1982 and in 30 years we only fought once - something about a tennis racquet if I remember correctly.

"She taught me everything I know about life - and said the most important thing is to know what it is you want.

"Manuela became ill seven years ago when I was coaching Venezia. It was a lump on her breast but it seemed routine.

"She had an operation in Brescia but two years later she had another problem, this time with a lymph node.

"She had more surgery and chemotherapy but it was a disaster. I was at Roma when it started to get really bad.

"Manuela wanted to stay at home so we made a pact. I told her that when the treatment got really invasive I would be by her side every minute.

"She was my priority. Her life was my life. So I went back to Orzinuovi. People were surprised by my decision to leave Roma but to me it was natural.

"There was a point when I thought Manuela might survive.

"It was after a long series of chemotherapy and the medics gave us hope. She felt better.

"We came to Florence but after almost three years her condition got worse and last May the tumour struck her liver. It was the beginning of the end and the struggle was then only against the devastating pain, not the illness."