“I’m a different animal,” says Rocco Commisso. “I hope they respect a different animal. And if they don’t respect that, screw them.”
The American billionaire and owner of ACF Fiorentina, a famous but underachieving Italian football club, is reflecting on his relationship with the team’s supporters, players, other club owners, the media, the whole damn world.
It’s a crisp, bright November afternoon in Florence, and we’re eating spaghetti in a private room on the top floor of the five-star Westin Excelsior hotel. Floor-to-ceiling windows provide panoramic views over the historic city that gave birth to the Renaissance. The landscape is punctuated by red-tiled roofs and the scarlet dome of the Duomo.