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When I was a child there was just Padova and not yet The Padova. There were Basilica of Sant'Antonio, square full of pigeons, short trips with my parents and field trips with my school. San Vedimiano is only 77 kilometers far from Padova, but for me it seemed to be a long long journey. Now when I think back, I realize that those 77 kilometers were the exact distance between the child I no longer was and the man I was becoming: for the first time in my life I was far from home, always following the ball, that has never ever left me alone. I was thirteen, the number 'ten' shirt in Juventus was worn by Zavarov and I didn't have this number, not even in Padova, playing for 'Giovanissimi', in fact, at that time I had number seven on my shirt, the same number I wore when we won the World Championship in Berlin. I spent all my teen years in Padova, teen years of a boy, who left his family in San Vendemiano, with hope, fear, enthusiasm and ambitions in his heart. And the will to play. It seems like I went to the other part of the world, but for me that way was really something huge, because it was the symbol of separation. My Mum still remebers the time when i was about to take the train and she was giving me the last advices:"Stay close to other people and be careful" I had to change the trains in Mestre and there I had to wait for another train for thirty, forty minutes. Then, my parents came to see me in Padova and it was my turn to instruct them:"Be careful in Mestre, changing the platform" My Mum says that exactly at that moment she realized that I had grown up. I grew up together with the others I shared the flat with not far from the AAppiani stadium. Also here I went through all the stages, from Giovanissimi to Allievi to Primavera. The same happened in the National team: Under 16, Under 17 (the first World Championship in my career in Montecatini, I debuted against the USA after two days of high temperature and I failed the penalty in front of Pelè, who was on the tribune), and finally Under 18. I remember well the weekly matches against the main team in those years, when I had to face people like Albertini, Di Livio, Maniero, Benarrivo, Galderisi. There I understood, that I was and could be quite competitve.On the 15th of May,1992 at the Giovanni Celeste stadium, wearing Padova shirt I debuted in Serie B in the match against Messina,with Bruno Mazzia on the bench but above all on that day I lived the emotions of the first goal, scored by a professional player, the only goal in the club team, without the Juventus shirt. On the 22nd of November 1992, Mauro Sandreani sent me out to play against Ternana and I scored 5-1 goal. The number on my shirt was 16 (by the way, how much is 6+1?).