Daniele De Rossi attended the 6th edition of RCS Academy’s “Sports Industry Talk” in collaboration with Corriere della Sera and RCS Sports & Events, interviewed by Walter Veltroni.
The legendary Roma captain and former coach discussed many topics, including what it takes to be a coach and his evolution from player to manager.
“Football is a simple sport and it brings you closer to people, but doing simple things is difficult.”
“Every coach wants to emulate someone as good as Guardiola, but this takes the ball out of the kids’ feet and prevents them from using tactics for an hour.”
“Children need to play one-on-one and have fun. Then as you grow you have to do different things, and all sports are changing and moving towards greater physicality. “Football always moves towards fast players.”
“Perhaps the greatest manager in Italy in the last 15 years is Gasperini, who changed the life of the club and the city.”
“Atalanta was a team that was up and down between Serie A and Serie B, but has now become a big name in Italian soccer. But now that we’ve won the Europa League, it’s more attractive, but winning a trophy doesn’t change your career path.”
“You can win the final like Atalanta, but you can also lose because you miss a penalty kick. Even mega-coach Spalletti hears a different story after winning the Scudetto with Napoli. “Winning is not fundamental to me, but I think the winner feels the weight of attention more,” he said.
“Totty? The strongest and most attractive player is Francesco. I played with him for many years. He carried this light with him. This leadership was carried on silently. He said, “He spoke with his body language, and as a teenage fan, I also experienced that.”
“As a football player, I loved helping my teammates. In a locker room with 30 players, you need altruism.”
“From my first coaching experience at SPAL, they saw me as an unknown entity and I had to make them understand that I was serving them.”
“At Roma I came in as the club’s standard-bearer and was almost considered a friend to some of the players. So we have to find the right arrangements and the staff is also important.”
“The mental aspect and group management are very important. You need to be able to read people around you, and then you need soccer knowledge. Without knowledge, the players will immediately baptize you.”
