#national #team #win #Euro #Cup #win #Call #Duty #Relief
Last August Luciano Spalletti (64 years old) was appointed new Italy coach. Replacing in office Roberto Mancini and After winning the Serie A title with Naples, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) understood that the former footballer, that signed until 2026was the right profile to raise the spirits and courage of a team that He has not participated in a World Cup since the World Cup in Brazil in 2014.
The This summer’s Euro Cup in Germany It will be Spalletti’s first big appointment as head of the Azzurra bench. In a recent interview in La Gazzetta dello Sport, the coach has already made clear the tough hand he is going to have with his players in the tournament.
“Some players must have believed that Spalletti barks and then has no teeth, but they were wrong and now there are things that should be clear. From now on, leave the Playstations at home and don’t bring them anymore. I invent a little game to get them thinking and distracted at night. Let them come see me and I will give them homework to do at night if the daytime homework hasn’t been enough. Because in the national team you stay with the ball, concentrated, without messing around. “I repeat the All Blacks motto: ‘There are no assholes here.'”
“Are phones allowed in the locker room?” asked journalist Andrea Di Caro. “I have to hold my cell phones, but they cannot be left on the massage table or during treatments.”. I talked about video games because there were things I DID NOT like and please capitalize the “no”. I want to relive the gatherings and retreats of the past: old customs and atmospheres. Simple and healthy things and Buffon will help me with this. If modernity is playing the Playstation until 4 in the morning when there is a game the next day, then this modernity thing is not right. We live in a world that has few incentives to work hard, to sweat: today’s children would rather upload a photo to Instagram with their hair combed than put their heads down and pedal. These are not the values that my Italy should transmit. You come to the national team with smiling eyes and a beating heart and you are like a pack of wolves that go in single file to push the teammate in front and not leave anyone behind. The Italians demand a tough and responsible team, solid and boastful. “We come to the national team to win the Euro Cup, not to win Call of Duty.”
“I want a healthy group and those who are not, stay home”
Champions of the last Euro Cup (2020), Italy needs to be once again that feared team on the old continent. To be one again, the former Napoli player is clear about what the thinking and mentality of his team has to be: “I need a strong national team, I won’t settle for anything. I want to win the European Championship and then the World Cup. Then we can leave, but the speeches I make to the team are the ones that all Italians are waiting for: We are going to Germany to win, not to participate. Our history demands it. To do this I need these players to be better than they are. “I don’t have time to train them: I need something that reaches inside them and lights a fire in them, that makes them open their eyes, that gives them the conviction that they can do it.”
In a group marked by illegal betting which led the police to investigate two players from the national team, Sandro Tonali and Nicolò Zaniolo During a training camp with the national team last October, Spalleti highlighted “how healthy” his group needs to be.
“I know that England, France, Spain and Germany are strongbut we can match them. But you don’t win with players who only play well for 20 minutes, but with those who do many things for 90 minutes.. And that they are in the game even if they come off the bench or are in the stands. Don’t waste mental energy managing those who sulk.. Because they are energies that take away from the preparation of the game and we cannot afford it. That’s why we have to choose proactive, reliable and enthusiastic guys. Those who do not have these characteristics can stay home, we do not need them. I want a healthy group and to leave a mark in these three years. Then I can stop.”
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Italy national football team
