Julio Velasco returns to how he convinced Paola Egonu

Julio Velasco returns to how he convinced Paola Egonu

Julio Velasco at the Trento Sports Festival talked about Paola Egonu, recounting how he brought the blue opposing player back to the national team after a period of crisis before the Paris 2024 Olympics. Here are the words of the coach who led the Azzurri to the long-awaited Olympic title in women’s volleyball.

"There had been several problems. I cannot say everything I said to my players, but one thing I said to Paola. That I know what it means to become a character and very often the character breaks us, has its own life and it's very difficult to relate to people, there's always the character in the way. 'You are Paola Egonu, the character' I told her. 'I want to talk about Paola'. And then we talked about everything".

" This girl, when it comes to integration. The Italian people è a fantastic people, welcoming, making you feel good. Forò è a people who have always migrated. Immigration è recent so in my opinion so many do not realize what it is like to be a foreigner in another land”.

“I was called “lei” when I went to police headquarters here in Italy at 33 for citizenship, black people were called “tu. And that’s noticeable. These girls sometimes have reactions or feelings, and they are on guard, because theyé have experienced so many things when they were little and now that they are famous they can&e afford nothing more. I talked to her to tell her that on this I would defend her to the death, but that on the rest she would be like all the others".