Michele Di Piedi brings a smile to Italian soccer: huge feat in Gibraltar
While Italian soccer is licking its wounds for yet another failure to qualify for the World Cup and for the disappointing participation in the European cups of its top clubs, there is an Italian coach, Michele Di Piedi (pictured here by Brandon Avellano), who in Gibraltar has accomplished a real feat by qualifying his Europa FC for the next Conference League.
“When I arrived, about two years ago, the team was last in the standings,” he tells Sportal.it: after ten matches they had only one win and nine defeats. The situation was complicated, but over time we managed to change course. From last we came seventh and even reached a cup final. Last year we grew again, expressing one of the best games in the league, while this year we achieved the goal of the Conference League. In two years we have transformed a struggling club, almost for sale, into a solid reality.”
“There is no single secret behind this growth,” he adds. “Experience has played a major role: in the past I have worked with young teams, achieving significant results and enhancing many players. But the key has been getting into the boys’ heads. You have to adapt to their characteristics, not impose something constructed at the table. I don’t invent anything: I try to understand what they can give and build on that. I never ask a player for something that’s not in his or her depth, the goal is to bring out the strengths and hide the limitations.”
True bomber, Di Piedi has been a globetrotter: in England he is still an idol of Sheffield Wednesday fans, but he has also trod the fields of Norway, Burma, Venezuela and Cyprus, among many others. “My experience as a soccer player has helped me a lot. I experienced different contexts, even abroad, learning about different cultures and mentalities. Today soccer has changed: players are different than before, often less used to sacrifice. You need patience, you need daily work to get into their mentality and motivate them in the right way. It is a continuous exchange: they enter my soccer world and I enter theirs. When this balance is created, it becomes a strength.”
“After the results achieved, some proposals also arrived, including the recent one from an Azerbaijani club with an important project. But my intention is to stay: I want to complete the path started here. Returning to experience the European cups as a coach (as a player he played in the Champions League with Apoel Nicosia, ed) is a very strong emotion. As a player I already felt certain sensations, but on the bench it is different, even more intense. Some moments have been really special even on a personal level, like seeing my son as a protagonist: emotions that are hard to describe.”
A separate chapter deserves Francesco, Michele’s son, who from his father took the killer instinct in the penalty area but also the humility of someone who knows that without working hard one cannot achieve one’s dreams: having arrived in Gibraltar in January, the former Enna, Milazzo and Sora was the author of the decisive goal for Conference League qualification. “He showed he has the attributes: it’s not easy to be coached by his father, the pressure mounts, but he was good at not letting it affect him and bringing his contribution to the cause.”
“I consider myself a coach linked to old-school values, but with an open and modern mentality. I believe in respect, discipline and team spirit. Competition is fundamental, but it must be healthy. I ask my players one thing above all: on the field they must give everything for each other. Outside they may have different relationships, but during the game they must be united, almost a family. When everyone is rowing in the same direction, even difficulties become more manageable and results come,” Di Piedi concludes.
