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00:00 Vincenzo Vergine, it's a pleasure to welcome you to Milan with this first interview,
00:04 because it's the first time we're dealing with always interesting topics.
00:08 You are the new head of the youth sector,
00:10 and I'll start with the question that everyone is waiting for right now,
00:13 looking at the youth sector. What is the goal of coming to Milan?
00:16 Let's start with a simple question.
00:19 The first consideration I make is that it is a great honor for me
00:23 to have received this invitation and the call from one of the most important clubs
00:28 in the world for one of the most ambitious projects in the world.
00:34 The first big goal, and I'll answer your question,
00:40 of a great club is to train the resources for the first team at home.
00:47 Training the resources for the first team in a big club means
00:53 putting men and women who work on this project on their feet
00:58 with a unique vision that puts the player at the center,
01:04 so that all the operators, we have several,
01:07 know what the goal is and how to help this player perform and improve.
01:14 And so the player becomes our mission.
01:20 So everyone, from the manager to the last of the collaborators,
01:27 must be clear, in an obvious way, that the final process of our work
01:34 is to try to get the most out of their potential.
01:38 This is the real big goal.
01:40 Saying it is simple, doing it, I can assure you that it is a fairly ambitious mission.
01:47 And it will be a mission that we will certainly follow closely,
01:50 because we all have in our hearts, as you do, the future of Milan and Sottero Giovanile,
01:54 but you also have a very important past and a lot of experience here in Rosso Nero,
01:59 so I ask you to describe for us the stages of your career,
02:02 what you have done in recent years, but above all for several years.
02:06 My path is an academic path, I studied the functional assessment of the athlete,
02:11 so I did the field, I did the athletic coach in the 90s,
02:17 occupying myself in the lower categories of the Pro League, then the B Series,
02:22 and the athletic physical preparation of many players and teams,
02:26 together with one of the greatest masters of this sector, Pantaleo Corvino,
02:32 and with him I had an experience that formed me and forged me,
02:37 making me understand the importance of taking care of the little details.
02:41 Then I approached Fiorentina, where this path has expanded,
02:46 embracing all the management of the athlete in all its aspects,
02:51 technical, tactical, organizational, and the management of free time,
02:57 because we understood in times of doubt that you can't just take care of the 8-10 hours
03:03 that pass on the field, but you have to organize a job as a club that embraces all 168 hours.
03:11 We did a project together with the help of the owner and the president,
03:17 a project called "Promesse Viola", which had exactly that cut,
03:21 to deal with many collaborators in the educational, psychological and training areas,
03:27 to fill the days of these players with content that they would place in various disciplines.
03:35 That project was very successful, as the facts show,
03:39 because the real success, I repeat, is to bring players into the first team,
03:44 or in any case into the top competitions, because they become technical values
03:47 and consequently financial and economic.
03:49 It was very successful to the point that after the experience as a manager in Florence,
03:56 I went and worked in another big club, which is Roma,
04:01 with a vision that is quite important, because an American company
04:08 has as a basis the desire to value the player starting from the roots,
04:17 therefore from the cradle, and a model was successfully applied there,
04:22 and on the most beautiful one it was interrupted, because Milan came to take me to Milan
04:30 to try to recreate the right conditions here, so that my experience,
04:38 my training and my skills can make them available to this great club,
04:44 and I'm sure that together there are all the conditions to do something extraordinary.
04:50 The first big goal is to become protagonists in our country,
04:54 because Milan can only be a leader and a protagonist,
04:58 and in the circle of not being able to say in how long,
05:01 but I have in my head in a very short time, to become a leader also internationally.
05:07 And this is certainly nice to hear for the fans who are listening to us,
05:11 always as an address for them, to make them understand the development of their work.
05:16 Milan has been doing well in the youth sector for years,
05:20 it won a Scudetto in the U15 two or three seasons ago,
05:24 then it made several other semifinals,
05:27 is the result more important or is it more important in what makes a responsible youth sector?
05:34 This topic would require a lot of depth, because it is a very complex topic,
05:39 that is, the real results of a great rival, of a great youth sector,
05:44 are how many players you have brought into the first team or in the first teams,
05:50 that is, they have become economic value and also technical, of course.
05:56 So this is the real result of a great youth sector.
06:01 Obviously, the results obtained on the pitch by the guys with the various teams,
06:08 with the various categories, are also important tools,
06:12 because to make a great player at 19-20 years of great potential,
06:18 as we call him, a top player, he must necessarily be a winner.
06:23 If he is a winner, he must certainly be part of groups that are used to winning.
06:28 As I often repeat, training a player from a certain level means
06:34 that he must always think about overcoming the opponent, winning, winning.
06:39 It is different from making a player who must think about not losing.
06:44 So, in this there is a thin line that marks the result that can become overwhelming
06:53 to itself, which is useless in the dressing room,
06:56 from that result, instead, which, if inserted and embedded in a project,
07:01 in a broader vision, is functional to make it clear that you are on the right track.
07:06 This is what I will try to do. Everything must work so that the player improves
07:11 in every skill of his abilities, all his abilities, but making it clear that
07:17 Milan can only play to win. So he can only have a mentality with the dominance
07:24 of the game and with the strength and the desire to grow to try to overcome
07:31 any obstacle and any opponent. If all the components work in this direction,
07:36 then we make the model, which I then try to work on from morning to night,
07:43 to present, because I will like it shortly that everyone comes to tell me,
07:49 "You know, coach, I saw that team play, I saw that other team play."
07:53 Regardless of the differences that may be due to characteristics and tactics,
07:59 a single model is seen because the Milan player must be easily identifiable.
08:04 There must be a player who honors the shirt, who is attached to the club,
08:09 which is putting him in the conditions of expression at the highest levels,
08:13 but with a personality and a competitiveness that must distinguish him.
08:18 Then talent will obviously make the difference and it will be what will lead him
08:24 to great results.
08:25 And in this sense, in this vein that you have opened as regards the growth of the guys,
08:30 the sense of belonging, that is, the sense of being at Milan or coming to Milan
08:34 for those who have not grown up in the Pulcini, how important is it in your opinion?
08:38 It is very important. The sense of belonging helps you and allows you to recover
08:46 as much of that path as necessary to make that shirt sewn on feel.
08:54 Because sometimes you say, "Ah, that guy, you can see that he has that shirt sewn on him."
09:00 Obviously, if when we recruit good players, they, with their families,
09:06 are fans of Milan, we are advantaged. But this does not always happen,
09:10 because obviously our scout network can go and recruit players
09:15 throughout Lombardy, Italy or Europe, who know how to play football well
09:20 or who have potential with parameters to be able to work to bring them to the first team.
09:26 So sometimes they may not be fans of that shirt.
09:32 So my job, of all my collaborators, is to quickly bring them down in that context
09:38 where you, together with the whole media area, together with all the club components,
09:43 you have to help me so that that player, in all the components, can live and breathe
09:49 the Red-Black shirt from morning to night and we can make them understand
09:53 the history of Milan, how important it is, and wearing that shirt must be a pride
10:00 that must constantly make it up to that shirt.
10:04 So the club must always be at a higher level, where each of us, every day,
10:10 must show that we can be up to the task.
10:13 If the player grows with these values, when he reaches 20 years old,
10:17 that shirt is definitely sewn on.
10:20 I was also interested in the staff, in the ambition of having a staff that grows,
10:25 because in my opinion investing in a youth centre is not just about investing money,
10:29 but also investing in the type of work, understanding how to get the whole structure to work,
10:35 so staff and boys together.
10:37 How important is also the continuous update and, of course,
10:42 the true importance of a staff that works perfectly?
10:45 Yes, exactly what a great club must do, that is,
10:49 constantly invest in the training of the staff.
10:53 Our boys are our raw material on which we must make all the efforts,
11:01 project all our efforts, and the people who work, from the technicians to the support staff,
11:09 to all the activities that are proposed, that our players have as actors,
11:17 must be constantly trained by the club and be at the level of what they must then propose to our players.
11:27 I repeat the concept, it is not only important how good our technicians are,
11:33 our coaches on the pitch, because they spend 8-10 hours a week in that area of comfort,
11:41 but it will also be important to train all that staff that must learn to manage the other 160 hours.
11:48 So the invisible investment, as I call it, must be my strength to make the club understand.
11:55 But I must say here, I open and close a parenthesis,
11:58 I have found a club very attentive to these dynamics,
12:03 I have found an administrator like Giorgio Furlani very sensitive to all these issues,
12:09 and very ambitious because he wants Milan to be the leader in the discussion.
12:15 I have shared these themes with the management of the first team, with Jeff Moncada,
12:19 with Antonio Dottavio, who we constantly confront,
12:23 and how this vision must be connected, because this vision must be unique,
12:28 which starts from the base and ends in San Siro,
12:31 and so that this can happen without obstacles, or with as few obstacles as possible,
12:37 there must be a uniform vision from the top management, all the managers,
12:41 constant and continuous discussions.
12:43 And I must say that from this point of view, we are ahead because I found an important feeling,
12:50 and from my experience I say that this will speed up the process.
12:54 I'm wrong if, from your words, I deduce that it is also a scientific, cultural approach,
12:58 not just a sporting one, what you want to bring into Milan,
13:01 also on the basis of what you have experienced.
13:03 Yes, absolutely. We can only have a scientific, cultural approach,
13:11 it becomes sensual, but why must it be scientific?
13:15 Because today we have a whole series of tools, a whole series of parameters
13:21 to which we can refer to try to reduce, to the smallest extent,
13:26 the variables that affect the formation of the player.
13:29 So, knowing those variables, those infinite variables
13:33 that are at the base of the formation of the top level player,
13:37 means studying, means training and having an academic approach,
13:42 which does not mean, as I often say, to take around some of my collaborators
13:48 who then exaggerate with the numbers, you don't have to be a scientist.
13:52 That is, football is not a science, but it certainly uses all the sciences
13:58 so that it can then have a better player as the last result.
14:04 I was interested in asking you something about the structures,
14:07 because I know you have an ambitious program, also from that point of view,
14:11 for a restyling, we can call it that, of the Vismara Sports Center.
14:15 Yes, let's say that the Milan-Milanello structures,
14:18 a sports center of excellent spring has just finished,
14:22 so we are really at the forefront because we have everything we need
14:27 for that finishing team, which is the current second real team that Milan has.
14:32 All the other formation teams, both the aconistics and the basic activities,
14:37 train at the Vismara, which is an excellent center in the heart of Milan,
14:40 but which needs a whole series of interventions aimed at paying attention to the player
14:48 and obviously making that center, always in line with what we said before,
14:53 a center of belonging, where the boy, the families and all the operators
14:58 can live the Milan, the Rosso Nero from morning to night.
15:02 For this we have already launched a restyling project,
15:06 and soon, by the end of this season, you will see the Vismara
15:11 completely renovated and suitable for the Milan's blizzard.
15:17 I ask you a more field question,
15:19 do you think these young players train enough, not only from Milan in general,
15:23 I mean Monteore?
15:25 No, absolutely not, we live in a context in which,
15:29 both at the school level and at the institutional level,
15:34 no one does anything for our boys.
15:36 So, I start from the base, when we recruit good players,
15:40 they come from a background where they do little motor activity,
15:44 this is one of the causes of the depopulation of the sporting talent.
15:49 So, when we recruit them from the territory, or from other parts of Italy and Europe,
15:56 we bring them to a training regime where we train little,
16:01 but we can't do more than that for logistical, school and organisational reasons.
16:07 Indeed, I started a program called "Performance",
16:11 individual, on each of them.
16:14 This is a great effort, a great job from the club,
16:20 but you have to train more and better.
16:23 The task of each club is to try to work in this direction.
16:28 We are doing it, we have already started this program.
16:31 I take this opportunity to thank all my collaborators
16:34 who are making great efforts of all kinds
16:38 to try to meet my requests and to expand the training hours of a season.
16:45 This is necessary, because without this type of intervention
16:50 we risk not to put that important piece in the training of the athlete,
16:56 which must be integrated into the great effort we are trying to make
17:01 to take care of their free time and all the other hours of the day.
17:07 So, the other vacancies can be filled only if the club sets up initiative activities
17:14 where it always sees our boys engaged and always sees protagonists.
17:18 It was very clear, especially with the goals,
17:21 with what you want to achieve in these years.
17:24 I would say that even the fans who followed us can be satisfied.
17:27 I still have a little curiosity.
17:29 Is there room for a new director of the youth academy for a dream, for a future idea?
17:34 The dream as a dream must be kept in the drawer.
17:38 I would like to be able to say in the next interview
17:42 "We have realized this dream".
17:45 So, the commitment that I will put in place with the whole structure
17:52 will be that we will make that dream come true.
18:01 Because working in Milan is a dream, being at the height of Milan is a dream.
18:08 What I try to transfer to the boys constantly, to all my collaborators,
18:13 is to make sure that our boys are always aware that they live in a reality
18:21 where the privilege of being part of it must never be taken for granted.
18:27 Thank you very much, director.
18:29 Thank you.
18:30 Grazie.
18:30 [BOOM]