Mark Fish is one of the most esteemed footballers in South African football history, having played the majority of his career in the English and Italian top flights. Soccer Laduma sat down with the legendary central defender to discuss the stint, with Serie A giants Lazio, that introduced him to European football.
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So how did your move to Lazio come about?
At the time, Zamalek were interested, after that Bayern Munich as well. Manchester United were also interested and I met with Sir Alex [Ferguson] and Bobby Charlton. Everything was happening very quickly after we won the 1996 AFCON. I went to United, I went to Lazio and, at the time for me as a defender, Serie A is where you wanted to play. Living in Rome and playing in Serie A was a dream come true, I was a big AC Milan fan and to realise one of your dreams, it wasn't a difficult decision to make.
Serie A did have some of the best players in the world back then, but Bayern and United were and remain massive institutions. Why was it such an easy decision for you to make?
At the time, the people who represented me were more inclined to Italian football. I'm not saying that they weren't English fans, but I definitely know if I had the person that represented me when I moved from Italy to England, who knows, I might've gone for those four weeks at Man United to acclimatise. It's the way it happened, you don't look back in regret, it's just one of those things. Sir Alex wanted me to come over to see if I could acclimatise to the way that they play. We, as a national team, were playing 3-5-2 and United were a flat 4-4-2. At the time, I also never said no [to United], we just told them that we were under obligation to go see Lazio and that's what we did. I obviously fell in love with Rome and the opportunity came so we took it.
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How was it playing in the Italian top flight and contesting in games like the Derby della Capitale (Lazio vs AS Roma)?
I think the experience of playing in Serie A was everything I thought it would be, but then you have the Roma-Lazio derby. We have the Chiefs-Pirates derby, but there's no real comparison. I mean, Chiefs and Pirates fans sit among each other and they cheer for their respective teams, but there [in Italy] they are separated. If Lazio is the home side, then 80% of the stadium has Lazio supporters because they share a stadium, and if Roma is the home team then vice versa. So it can get very hostile inside the stadium and sometimes it spilt on to the field as well, so it's definitely a derby you don't want to lose.
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