From signing Gaddafi's son to trying to bring women into men's football, Luciano Gaucci's reign at Perugia was filled with bizarre decisions that made headlines across the football world.
As the most popular and famous sport in the world, football has always been an attractive force for all kinds of people. Especially for rich people, who either love the game and want to take part in it, or use the sport as a tool for more profit and popularity. As a result, a lot of businessmen, entrepreneurs, or even celebrities buy or invest in football clubs all over the world. Those people often have their own ways of doing things, and some of them use strange and eccentric methods to manage their newly bought "toys". From Berlusconi, to Sir Elton John, Massimo Cellino, Vincent Tan, Jesus Gil, and Ryan Reynolds nowadays, the football world has had a very large list of extravagant owners through the years. But maybe the epitome of a bizarre chairman and the title "the most eccentric football owner" belongs to no other than Luciano Gaucci, the ex-owner of the Italian club Perugia.
The Beginning
Gaucci was an entrepreneur who started his journey for glory with the founding of a cleaning company in the mid 70s in Italy. The money from the cleaning business helped him buy several race horses, and his fortune flourished in the 80s, after some well-done horse bets and purchases. Already a vice-president of Roma, Gaucci decided that he wanted his own football club. Therefore, in 1991, he bought the Italian club Perugia, which was then playing in Serie C1. Right from the start, the new owner began with his unpopular moves, as he persuaded 1982 World Cup winner Giuseppe Dossena to play for the club for the reason of publicity and popularity – Gaucci wanted everyone to know about his new club. Gaucci stated that he wants his club to reach the highest level possible – Serie A. The goal was realized in 1996, but Perugia lasted for only one season in the top flight. After returning to Serie A again in 1998, the team kept its place in the elite level for several years, which were the best in the club's history.
Gaucci's Crazy Ideas
Cheap Foreigners
Hidetoshi Nakata – Gaucci's golden transfer
Gaucci's strange and unconventional methods started in the mid 90s, when he realized that he can't compete with the financial power of the other clubs (those days Italian clubs were the richest in the world, and Serie A was by far the best league in the world), so he sent his scouts to different places abroad to find football gems for smaller fees. The club signed players from a lot of nationalities, such as the Ecuadorian Ivan Kaviedes, Finnish Mika Lekhosuo, Croatian Tomislav Erceg, and Japanese Hidetoshi Nakata. Some of them were unsuccessful transfers, but others, like Nakata, turned out to be a golden mine – Perugia bought the Japanese for 3.5 million and sold him to Roma for almost 22 million.
Hiring an Unknown Weirdo for a Coach
Peruggia's biggest achievements came with the appointment of Serse Cosmi, which was also a bizarre and bold move from Gaucci. Not well known and a part-time DJ, Cosmi made several promotions with lower division clubs, which drew the attention of Gaucci, and the Italian was appointed as head coach in 2000. Cosmi was also a strange bird, using erotic movies and organized trips to strip clubs to keep the morale of his players high. With him in charge, Perugia qualified for Europe and even won the Intertoto Cup in 2003.
Terminating a Contract for a Goal
After South Korea knocked Italy out of the 2002 World Cup, the scorer of the winning goal in the game, Jung Hwan-Ahn, who was playing at Perugia at the time, was released. Gaucci terminated his contract, saying that "he does not want to pay someone who ruined Italian football". This again demonstrates the eccentricity and bold actions of the owner, who didn't fear making controversial decisions based just on his feelings.
Trying to Infiltrate Women in Men's Football
Gaucci's groundbreaking attempts to bring women into men's football
Trying to introduce women to men's football was another crazy idea of Gaucci. He already fulfilled this by appointing Carolina Morace to be the head coach of Viterbese from Serie C, another club he owned at the time. This made her the first-ever female coach of a men's team in football. But Gaucci wanted something more, something bigger. He tried to sign Birgit Prinz for Perugia in 2003. The best female player in the world at the time, the German refused, considering the move just marketing and that she would be mostly a reserve.
Signing the Son of a Dictator
Al-Saadi Gaddafi – Gaucci's most controversial signing
But maybe the boldest and most famous Gaucci move was the transfer of Al-Saadi Ghaddafi in 2003. The son of Muammar Ghaddafi was trying to be a professional footballer in Libya, but given the situation and the fact that his family basically controlled everything in the country, his abilities were highly controversial. Nevertheless, Perugia signed him, and after the press suggested the deal was sponsored by the Libyan and there were economic interests behind it, Gaucci said "No sponsors, no business. He is intelligent, a good dribbler and has a fine left foot". The spell of Ghaddafi in Perugia was a joy for the media. It included lots of parties, women, and headlines for the newspapers. On the football pitch, Ghaddafi was below average, despite hiring Diego Maradona and Ben Johnson as personal trainers. His only appearance for Perugia came in a Cup tie against Juventus. The club got relegated to Serie B, but Ghaddafi never played a game. After that year he left the club.
The Fall
After the relegation, in 2005 Perugia declared bankruptcy. The authorities started a judicial inquiry against Gaucci, and he escaped to the Dominican Republic to avoid prosecution. That was the end of Perugia's glory days, but the football world will never forget the strange ideas and actions of Luciano Gaucci, which, no matter successful or not, made massive headlines in the early 2000s and cemented him as one of the most, if not the most, eccentric owners in the game of football.