FourFourTwo December 2021 79Words Si Hawkins Additional reporting Emanuele Giulianelli
“MY DAD’S
SCARIER THAn
YOUR DAD...”
What’s a football-mad son of a dictator to do but wield
his family’s influence to play in Serie A? Saadi Gaddafi
got his wish with Perugia back in 2003, but the beautiful
game would eventually contribute to his ugly downfallaking your debut for a new
club is serious business for
anyone. Nerves are natural,
whether you’re a promising
teenage talent, a seasoned
international... or the child
of a brutal military dictator.
For Saadi Gaddafi, Perugia
vs Juventus in May 2004
was massive. He’d taken
a unique route to get there,
after all, from running an
FA and wrecking rival clubs
to hiring Diego Maradona and being slapped
with a drugs ban. He’s hardly a team-mate
you’d forget in a hurry.
“I was the one who got Saadi his debut!”
chuckles former centre-back Salvatore Fresi,
then a 31-year-old loanee under Perugia’s
amenable boss, Serse Cosmi. “I asked Serse
to put him on the pitch and he said, ‘Are you
crazy?!’ I told him, ‘Mister, he’s promised that
he’ll give us 50 Smart cars to share among
us’. Then he brought him on.”
Saadi’s name naturally pops up whenever
Libyan football is mentioned, but the sport
played a curiously key role more generally
in his family’s notorious regime. It’s just over
10 years since his fearsome father, Colonel
Muammar Gaddafi, was ousted after three
decades in power. The game in Libya is finally
showing signs of recovery – but with another
Gaddafi now warming up on the touchline,
that story may have a fresh twist...“YOU WAS ALWAYS ON THE COCKTAILS!”
Saadi’s playing career may sound farcical, but
football was a big deal for the Gaddafis when
it suited them.
Muammar was a keen player while training
in Dorset with the British army in 1966, before
he marched to power back in North Africa.
In 1969, the carefree usurper overthrew King
Idris – then away in Turkey, receiving medical
treatment – in an infamous coup d’état. As
Libya’s status grew, Gaddafi Sr wielded his
authority in the only logical way: by reaching
out to random football teams.
In 1979, Libya still seemed balmy rather
than barmy, so Everton arrived to play at the
national stadium. The local team “lacked
strength with their shooting”, according to
gaffer Gordon Lee, while captain Mick Lyons
described the artificial surface as “a faded
nylon carpet placed over concrete” when
star striker Bob Latchford became crocked.
Club officials did receive actual carpets as
part of the deal too, though, so all was well.
Ten years later, Libya was a rogue state
backing terrorism but still trading somewhat
awkwardly with Ireland – mainly beef and,
surreptitiously, guns. That’s why a League of
Ireland XI flew in, posing as Jack Charlton’s
national team, which “may not have been
the brightest thing that anyone ever did”, as
manager Brian Kerr would later reflect. They
survived despite a booze-related run-in with
the police, in a famously dry country.SAADI
GADDAFI