During training sessions afterward, whenever Inzaghi touched the ball, his teammates would mock him by shouting, “Pippo, pass it to Simone!” But Inzaghi didn’t understand what they meant.
Later, when they returned to the hotel and were at the dinner table, Inzaghi reached for the salt and suddenly, the players started yelling, “Pippo, pass the salt to Simone!”
Then he picked up an apple, and once again came the shouting: “Pippo, pass the apple to Simone!”
Simone Barone lost his mind and went up to Inzaghi, asking him,
“Why didn’t you pass me the ball when we were in front of the goalkeeper?”Inzaghi replied,
“So that’s why they keep telling me to pass everything to Simone whenever I touch anything.”Barone said,
“Yes! That’s why! We want to know why you didn’t pass me the ball!”Inzaghi answered,
“If I had passed you the ball, you would’ve shot it over the bar. You would've missed it anyway, so I didn’t want to give it to you.”Everyone burst into laughter. Del Piero and Totti even fell to the ground laughing hysterically.
Inzaghi was not a player with Ronaldo’s flair, Thierry Henry’s speed, or Andriy Shevchenko’s intelligence. But he was a deadly striker, a poacher who could score from a quarter of a chance and was the best at exploiting defenders' mistakes.
German national team and Bayern Munich goalkeeper Oliver Kahn once said about him:
“Inzaghi doesn’t have technique, he’s not fast, and you barely see him on the pitch, but when the final whistle blows, you see his name on the scoreboard having scored one or two goals.”And to this day, Barone is still waiting for Inzaghi to pass him the ball.
