Valentino has not forgiven him. “The kick at Márquez never happened – I swear on my daughters’ heads.”

Valentino takes a roundabout approach. He starts with the milk he prepares every morning for his daughters, Giulietta and Gabriella. “If it’s already in the fridge, ready from the night before, it takes one minute and twenty seconds in the microwave; if, on the other hand, you prepare it on the spot, it takes one minute and eight seconds.” He’ll never take part in MasterChef – that much is certain. Yet his fans—who remain numerous, indeed very numerous—are not seeking that in the 474 pages of his autobiography: the story of his life, masterfully recounted by Giorgio Terruzzi, another former footballer who has made milk for many daughters in his lifetime.

In this massive book, the only banal element is the title (“La mia storia”), which prevailed over the far more imaginative and amusing alternative proposed by a friend (“Just imagine if I hadn’t been drinking”). However, the sentence that readers have been awaiting appears on page 363, at the start of the twentieth chapter entitled “Sepang, Malaysia, 25 October 2015”. “That kick never happened. I can swear on anything – on my daughters’ heads. That kick never existed.” The kick Vale is referring to is the one Márquez accused him of, the one that prevented him from winning his tenth World Championship, the one that, due to sporting (in)justice, turned the incident into the biggest scandal in the history of the MotoGP World Championship. As a result of that never-delivered kick, Rossi was forced to start from the back of the grid in the final race at Valencia, effectively losing a championship he had been leading, while Márquez—already out of contention—apparently sought to see the title go to Lorenzo. Valentino devotes 24 pages to his feud with Márquez, describing it in detail. That he goes so far as to swear on his daughters—he who admits to having learnt to pray from his mother Stefania (“But I do it in secret from Franci”)—lends his account credibility. The problem is that, eleven years on, while Márquez is winning his tenth World Championship, Valentino has not fully come to terms with the episode. “When I think about it, I feel exactly the same as I did that Sunday evening in Valencia,” he says. “The wound is still bleeding.” He hasn’t changed his mind about what happened. “I’m very sorry because nobody has taken responsibility. Márquez didn’t take the blame, nor did those who organise the championship. Lately, it even seems as though I’ve been made out to be the villain. And that’s not fair.”

From his disappointment over Márquez to his sadness at Simoncelli’s death, via the temptation of Ferrari, his meeting with Schumacher, his encounter with Hamilton and his support for Kimi. From black cats to lucky scissors, from the sound of the hairdryer he uses to help him fall asleep to his encounters with famous people. In his autobiography, Vale recounts his victories, his sorrows, his friends, his love for Francesca and his difficulties with his father Graziano. Without regrets and without making excuses. Because yes, Valentino is afraid of black cats. If one crosses his path, he stops, even in the dead of night on the hills of Tavullia, waiting for someone else to come along and take the bad luck away. When Francesca is driving—and she couldn’t care less about her partner’s superstitions—the Doctor even goes so far as to take his feet off the pedals, as if that gesture alone were enough to ward off the evil eye. Then there are the lucky little scissors, the ones he kept on the bedside table in the motorhome and which were once confiscated at the airport because he’d forgotten them in his hand luggage. A real drama. “I bought another pair just like them, but it took me three or four races to grow attached to them again.” Not to mention his obsessive attention to order. In the motorhome, he’d even start folding Uccio’s clothes…

Welcome to the world of Valentino Rossi, nine-time world champion, winner of 115 Grand Prix races, one of the greatest motorcyclists in history and perhaps the only one capable of turning his own neuroses into a spectacle for the masses – the only one to come up with a show for every victory, drawing inspiration from the pranks of his father and his friends. His story is one of fear, friendship, pain, love and fun. Above all, it is a story of fun, because Valentino has always managed to do something rather rare: take his work tremendously seriously without taking himself too seriously. “I’ve always been afraid, and I think all riders are afraid, because motorsport is dangerous. At a certain point, you realise that if you want to do what you love, those are the rules of the game.” This explains the black cats, the scissors and the rituals that have accompanied an extraordinary career. Superstition as an antidote to fear, not as a denial of danger. “Courage is very important, but you have to manage it, channel it and use it when needed. If you solve all your problems on the track with courage alone, it usually brings a bit of bad luck.”

In the book that Rizzoli has already sold worldwide (“Only with three popes had we ever managed to sell a book in more than 50 countries before its release, and they were foreign popes…”, said Massimo Turchetta, managing director of Rizzoli), there are highs and lows, such as the tax evasion scandal and the falling-out with his former manager, or the wild nights in Ibiza full of lies to get rid of a girlfriend or two (poor Martina Stella). A chapter is devoted to the death of ‘Sic’, a wound that time has not healed. Not only because Valentino lost a friend, but because he was directly involved in the Sepang accident. “It was very shocking because I was part of the accident.” In the book, he recounts those moments: the return to the pits, the hours spent with Uccio, but above all his friendship with Marco, his ability to make people laugh, and the carefree spirit of a young man who seemed destined to become one of the stars of the World Motorcycle Championship. It is one of the most painful chapters, but also one of the most necessary.

Rivalries have fuelled his career. First Max Biaggi, then Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo, with Márquez rounding off the line-up of rivals. “In sport, it’s the rivalries that make the difference. They’re what get people excited, what make them follow the races and what add spice to it all.” The book revisits Welkom 2004, Laguna Seca 2008 and Barcelona 2009, but above all it explores what wasn’t shown on television: the tensions, the thoughts, the behind-the-scenes relationships, and the way in which a rival can become both an obsession and a reason to keep improving. It is a final lap around the track, a necessary one, to have the last word on so many much-discussed episodes (which will now spark new reactions), but also to keep making us smile and, sometimes, laugh. Oh, Valentino…