Italy repechage to World Cup, new Azzurro coach has already turned over a new leaf
“These boys are the future of Italian soccer.” On the eve of the friendly match with Luxembourg, Silvio Baldini’s first thought is for the many youngsters who could make their debut tomorrow with the jersey of the senior national team, while waiting for a repechage that now seems almost impossible. “If they got here it means that right now they are the best, they started from the Under 15 to get to the senior national team. We want to show that these boys have matured along this path,” stresses the coach, who has been called to lead the Azzurri on an interim basis pending the appointment of a new coach.
Baldini admits to living this moment with perhaps even greater emotion than that of his players. “I feel this great joy of representing our people. The thing that interests me is that the boys have the pride of feeling the jersey on them, but above all the courage and freedom to express who they are without fear.”
An emotion that, he says, matured well before arriving at Coverciano. “The emotion was there before I arrived at Coverciano. It was that month when I was told I was going to play these games, and in that anticipation I felt really excited. Then once I set foot in Coverciano … Now we have to play, no use getting emotional. We have to try to do well and that’s it.”
The head coach is banking on the historic core of his Under 21 team, convinced that many of these boys can be the backbone of the next Azzurri cycle. “The boys have trained very well, they are a wonderful group,” he explains, then dwelling on the inclusion of the more experienced players. “We were really surprised by the attitude of Donnarumma, but also of Pio Esposito, who made themselves available. And the strange thing is that they thanked the group for being enthusiastically accepted. It should be the opposite.”
The humility shown by the newcomers particularly impressed Baldini. “Seeing these guys so humble and so attached to the national team jersey and especially trying to be help to the others, putting themselves on the same level, and then thanking them for being accepted… They didn’t feel they were better but they felt they were on the same level.”
The challenge with Luxembourg will also represent an opportunity for many youngsters to break the ice in the Azzurri. “These are very good players who are already playing in Serie A and are players in the moment who can explode as happened to Palestra and Pisilli. They are ready to arrive in great soccer as it happened to these guys.”
Finally, when asked who he would like to dedicate this his first experience as coach of the national team, Baldini indulges in an unexpected and sentimentally charged answer. “Not to a person, but to my children’s dog, particularly my daughter’s. He was a Maremma shepherd.” Then a reflection that encapsulates the deeper meaning of his way of living soccer and life: “Emotions? They are the ones that give you meaning in life, they give meaning to your spiritual part also to be a better person. If you do not live by emotions what kind of person are you? Without emotions you don’t exist.”
