Muzzi confession he rejected Arsenal and Wenger, infuriating Cagliari
21 Oct 2001: Roberto Muzzi of Udinese celebrates scoring during the Serie A match between Atalanta and Udinese, played at the Bergamo Stadium. DIGITAL IMAGE Mandatory Credit: Grazia Neri/ALLSPORT
Roberto Muzzi reveals the time he infuriated Cagliari President Massimo Cellino and Arsene Wenger by turning down a move to Arsenal. ‘I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.’
The former striker, now 55 years old, looked back on the incident that could’ve transformed his career by taking him to the Premier League in the 1990s.
He could’ve been teammates with former Inter man Dennis Bergkamp during the time of the Arsenal Invincibles, but chose the sunshine of Sardinia instead.
Muzzi turned down Arsenal
“I was on vacation at this resort with Matteo Villa, the captain, and I didn’t have a mobile phone then, so they told me I had a call at the reception,” revealed Muzzi on the PodCasteddu podcast.
“I got there and it was Cellino on the phone, telling me I had to come straight back to Cagliari, because I then had to immediately fly off to London.
“I replied look President, I am not going to London, I don’t want to go anywhere. They were coming to get me with a private jet, Wenger would be there personally to pick me up.
“My immediate response was ‘I’m not going’ and indeed I didn’t go. He was furious with me.”
Why did Muzzi decide to turn down Arsenal and Wenger in order to remain with Cagliari, even angering his own club President?
“I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I spoke to my wife, I had small children, I was too happy at Cagliari. This was also before Italian players really went to England, we’d had Gianfranco Zola and I think Gianluca Festa, maybe Paolo Di Canio, but that was it.”
The striker eventually did leave Sardinia in 1999 for an experience with Udinese, then going on to Lazio, Torino and Padova, where he retired in 2009.
The bond with Cagliari remains to this day, because he returned in 2022 to be part of the club infrastructure, promoted to the role of technical director in 2025.
There were also some spells abroad during his coaching career, as he was assistant manager to Andrea Stramaccioni at Panathinaikos and Sparta Prague.
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