Bonetti discovers paradise after Juventus

An Italian import in Grimsby

There he was, the Serie A star, a man who had played in a European Cup final and shared a dressing room with Michel Platini, Paolo Rossi and Gianluca Vialli. Now he was getting changed in the laundry room at Blundell Park, home of the not-quite-so-world famous Grimsby Town.

Ten years ago, Ivano Bonetti played for Juventus against the South American club champions in the Intercontinental Cup in Japan. Today he plays for Grimsby against Charlton Athletic in the Endsleigh League First Division in Cleethorpes. The shirt is still black and white stripes, but that is where the resemblance ends.

Juventus, 23 times Italian champions, were the first club to win all three European competitions. Grimsby, who last played in the top flight 47 years ago and never won it, do not even send much of a fishing fleet into Europe these days.

Bonetti's presence at Grimsby is remarkable in itself. What makes it barely believable is that he is paying pounds 50,000 of his own money for the privilege.

Talking to Bonetti yesterday, as he cheerfully pulled his training kit on amid the washing machines and tumble dryers, one had to ask him: where did it all go wrong? The answer, delivered with the aid of his interpreter and cousin, Dario Magri, is that nothing has gone wrong. He loves it in Grimsby, so much so he has turned down the chance of a lucrative move to Japan.

Such is his desire to play he turns out today despite being thrown through the windscreen in a head-on car crash while visiting Italy in midweek. "He was so lucky," Magri said. "The cars were written off." Incredibly Bonetti suffered only mild cuts and bruising to his forehead.

Bonetti's affection for Grimsby is reciprocated. Blundell Park will be sold out today for a match which would normally attract 4,500. Instead they were queueing on Monday to be among the 8,500 capacity crowd. Five hundred of those supporters, judging by this week's sales, will be waving an Italian flag, a similar number will be wearing shirts with "Bonetti" on the back.

"It is incredible for me," Bonetti said. "For 15 years in Italy I played alongside big-name foreign players, now I find I am the big-name foreigner in a town which did not know I existed two months ago.

"It is a special situation here. I am abroad and doing well for a team which has not done anything for a long time. At 31, I am still achieving something. There are goals to pursue here, just as there were at Juventus, they are simply smaller goals."

"It is lucky we are living outside Grimsby," Magri said. "Yes, they are going nuts about me in town," Bonetti added.

It is "Ivanomania", said Steve Plowes, the editor of the Grimsby fanzine, Sing When We're Fishing. "He has galvanised the place. It is like love. Suddenly you fall for someone and you are sitting in a room holding a bunch of flowers. Supporters are turning up in Italian mafia-style suits, they are carrying Italian flags. It's wonderful."

It helps that Bonetti is a charmer, as a player and a person. On arrival at Blundell Park, the first person he went to was Dot, the late-middle- aged laundry lady, kissing her on both cheeks. He smiled constantly, was evidently popular with the managerial team of Brian Laws and Kenny Swain, and with his team-mates.

After he scored the winner against West Bromwich a fortnight ago, Plowes said: "He did a lap of honour. He blew kisses to each stand in turn and hugged his translator, all this while the ref is waiting to restart the game. At the end he did another lap of honour with all the mascots bowing and scraping the ground around him."

On the pitch he is a mercurial player. "He is unpredictable," Plowes said. "He drifts in and out of the game a bit, and plays all over the place. Laws has done well, he had the bottle to play him, and he has the gumption to let him do what he wants.

"He has qualities you rarely see in this league," said Swain, the assistant manager. "He is technically good, confident with the ball at his feet and composed. He puts in quality crosses and is dangerous when he runs at people."

For his part, Bonetti is enjoying the contrast with calcio. "English football is tough, but honest," he said. "It is very fast and there is little time to think, partly because the referee never stops the game. Grimsby play good football, not long-ball, there is a lot of first-time passing. Italian football has a lot of skill and technique, but it can be too slow. It also lacks honesty, there are many tricks."

Bonetti's CV reads like a Serie A fixture list. After beginning with his home town, Brescia, he joined Genoa, then Juventus. The then 20-year- old found it difficult to gain a regular place - "I was competing with Platini for the same position," he said ruefully - and moved to Atalanta. From there he went to Bologna, then Sampdoria, with whom he played in the 1992 European Cup final against Barcelona at Wembley. Last year he played alongside Andrea Silenzi, now of Nottingham Forest, at Torino.

He then decided he wanted to play abroad, probably Japan, where he knew Kazu Miura, formerly of Genoa. Torino agreed to release him from his contract on condition he did not go to another Italian club and the rights to his "services and image" were sold to an American management company. While waiting to go to Japan in January, he thought he would try his luck in England.

Swain takes up the story. "Brian and I were looking for a left-sided attacking midfielder and we went to see one in a reserve match at Aston Villa. While there I met an Italian I knew from my Villa days who said they had just such a player looking for a club.

"Ivano came up to play in a reserve game, Brian put it about the press, and we had 2,000 turn up. I thought: 'We're on to something here'."

Bonetti's arrival galvanised the team to such effect that they have moved into third place. However, there was a snag. The company owning Bonetti wanted to be paid for his hire, Grimsby are not flush with money and, even if they were, under Fifa regulations they were not allowed to deal with the company.

Last week, Swain brokered a deal. Bonetti, eager to stay, put up pounds 50,000 and Grimsby promised they could persuade the community to match it. If the Ivano Bonetti Fund raises the money by the end of this month, his loan will be secured for the rest of the season. After that, no one knows. To buy him permanently would cost pounds 250,000, money Grimsby do not have. But if the unthinkable happened, and they won promotion, surely they would find the cash somewhere.

It is not inconceivable: Bonetti is not the only good player. Young defenders Gary Croft and Peter Handysides are regularly watched by Premiership scouts, while Jamie Forrester, once of Leeds and Auxerre, is reviving his career in attack. Alongside him is Steve Livingstone, formerly of Chelsea, Blackburn and Coventry and, at pounds 140,000, Grimsby's record buy.

"When I came here I said I was not prepared to sit in the middle of the division," Laws said. "We are looking to go up. If we did, the TV money is worth pounds 6-7m, which gives us a chance of having a go at staying there."

And if they did go up, could Bonetti persuade his former Sampdoria team- mate and good friend Vialli to join him?

"He loves English football and he loves the idea of coming to play in England," Bonetti said. "But a lot depends on the Champions' League. His contract ends this year and if Juventus win that, he may get some very good offers."

Would Vialli also be prepared to pay his own money to play in England? The suggestion brings much laughter from Bonetti and Magri before Bonetti said: "For sure - it would not be so much of an effort for him to do so."

Now we are dreaming. But in Grimsby they are in fantasy land already. "Last week a regular drove from Lancaster only to find she could not get in," Plowes said. "Two to three thousand were turned away. This is unheard of at Grimsby. I am just enjoying it while it lasts."