Saadi Gaddafi: The Story of the Dictator’s Son
The eBay listing was for €10,000. On offer: the match-worn shirt of one of the most memorable characters to play professional football in Italy. This player had been an unused substitute for the game in question. At best, he might have worn the top under his tracksuit as he sat on the bench.
What superstar could command such a sum? Diego Maradona, perhaps? Zinedine Zidane, Francesco Totti or maybe Ronaldo? Or a more distant legend of calcio, such as Serie A’s all-time leading scorer, Silvio Piola?
It was none of the above. The man to whom this shirt belonged was an attacker but never scored once during his four-year stint on the peninsula. He only played in two official matches—on both occasions as a late substitute. Under normal circumstances, such a player would have struggled even to find employment at this level for so long.
But there was nothing normal about the footballing career of Saadi Gaddafi. Not every player can have a dictator for a father.
Italian football has known more than its fair share of eccentric and outspoken team presidents. Even Silvio Berlusconi starts to look rather tame when set against the likes of Maurizio Zamparini, the Palermo owner and self-proclaimed “manager-eater” who once threatened to cut off his players’ testicles and eat them in his salad.
Luciano Gaucci, though, stood apart. Over the course of his 13 years as owner of Perugia, he feuded with the footballing authorities, attempted to sign a female player and even had his antics discussed at the European Parliament after he threatened to release the Korean Ahn Jung-hwan, apparently for scoring the goal that eliminated Italy from the 2002 World Cup.
That saga was still fresh in people’s minds when Gaucci announced his intention to sign a member of the Gaddafi family one year later. Saadi, third son of the now-deceased Libyan leader Muammar, had played football in his home country’s domestic league, as well as captained the national side, but few in Italy had ever seen him play.
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