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00:00 [Music]
00:05 Good morning Elisabeth Spina, head of AC Milan Women.
00:09 You've been the pride of AC Milan Women for years,
00:13 but we like to get to know you a little better,
00:15 so we know a little bit about you,
00:17 also for our fans, but I want to start from afar.
00:20 I ask you, what was Elisabeth Spina like as a child?
00:23 Well, certainly when I look at my first photos,
00:27 there's always a ball next to me.
00:29 I was a passionate girl, passionate about life, about football,
00:34 curious to travel.
00:37 Swedish mother, this certainly conditioned culturally
00:41 my approach to football.
00:43 My family always supported me and made it so that
00:47 for me, playing football was something extremely natural.
00:51 You grew up in Italy, right?
00:53 I was born in Italy, I grew up in Italy,
00:55 but I have 50% of Swedish blood,
00:59 and I don't deny that it conditioned me,
01:03 but culturally there are some facets that are enriched.
01:07 Did you already have sportsmen in your family or were you there...
01:10 No, your brother definitely, but mom and dad, or behind?
01:13 No, actually no, father passionate about football,
01:16 then I grew up with my brother, who is younger than me,
01:20 but with whom we shared the passion.
01:23 He was also able to be a professional footballer,
01:27 he played in Serie B and many years in the League Pro.
01:31 Do you remember what was your first childhood dream?
01:34 My dream was to become the best player in the world,
01:38 so I understand that it couldn't be like that,
01:42 it wasn't like that, also for the instruments
01:45 that were available at that time,
01:48 but it's a dream that has always given me the strength
01:52 to fight for something bigger than what I could imagine.
01:59 Elisabeth, let's start from the beginning,
02:02 but as a player, if you remember the first years on the pitch,
02:05 I imagine you were a bit spoiled by the countries, right?
02:08 My family gave me the opportunity to take part
02:11 in a boys' football school,
02:14 the great welcome, a little perplexity and curiosity at times,
02:19 but which were overcome over time.
02:24 I was lucky not to have encountered great difficulties
02:30 and this probably made me want to always experiment
02:39 with something new and to bring a somewhat innovative vision
02:43 compared to the past.
02:45 Then we will also talk about the evolutions of families,
02:48 of the approach to young footballers in the world of football,
02:51 but a curiosity in the middle.
02:53 Did you have the vision, that is, playing,
02:55 did you really dream that you would get to this level so quickly
02:58 or did you play like all the children,
03:00 thinking about the fun of running the ball
03:03 or did you already have the vision of what could happen in an almost mystical way?
03:08 For my generation, the imitative model was the male one,
03:12 so we dreamed one day of having the same opportunities
03:17 and you projected yourself forward as if those opportunities could be there.
03:23 They were more the adults, which is probably something that
03:27 is objectively changed at this moment,
03:29 because for the family that accompanies the little girl to the playground
03:35 to pursue their passion, today this then becomes also an opportunity,
03:39 a job opportunity, an opportunity to invest for the future.
03:45 At that time it was not like that, but in our heads,
03:51 in the heads of those who played, there were the same emotions,
03:56 the same hopes of those who play today.
03:59 Then I must say that over time I realized the difficulties I encountered
04:06 and the fact that sacrifices were not always repaid,
04:12 so I also paid great attention to thinking about my future
04:17 and about the safeguards through a study course.
04:21 Talent recognizes talent and Elisabeth Spina, a footballer, was a technical player.
04:26 Can we then tell you about yourself?
04:29 This is how others describe me, I recognize myself with this,
04:33 I was a technical player and I have a great regret that is that
04:40 I did not have the opportunity to put myself at 100%,
04:44 so I know well the characteristics of the player I was,
04:47 but I don't know the player I could have been.
04:50 Being a player and having also done this path,
04:53 and then we will analyze it in the various steps,
04:55 and being in this role gives you advantages,
04:58 in the sense that you know what a player needs.
05:00 I believe that it helps in the role I have today to have a vision as broad as possible.
05:08 I know the thoughts of the players,
05:12 sometimes remembering mine,
05:14 and so maybe this can help me to intervene to support them,
05:19 rather than to resume them, rather than to understand their moments too.
05:24 I must say that they pay great attention,
05:29 in addition to the professional path, also to the personal growth path,
05:33 so this is something I must take into account.
05:39 Knowledge that also goes through the transfer of UEFA coach,
05:46 with the most votes, the first woman in Italy, right?
05:49 If I'm not mistaken, so you will remain in history, right?
05:51 It's a nice thing.
05:53 Tell us about this path, this new life of yours,
05:56 which was a piece of the puzzle that helped you to be who you are.
06:01 I thought about studying, about taking care of myself,
06:05 and about starting as soon as possible a professional career in football.
06:11 At the age of about 23, while I was playing,
06:14 I started training in a football school for boys.
06:19 So much so that when I arrived in Milan in the 2018-2019 season,
06:25 my initial job was mainly for the...
06:30 I was responsible for the school and the training,
06:32 responsible for the Milan Academy in Italy.
06:36 Then the club unexpectedly, very quickly,
06:39 asked me to take into account
06:44 the fact that I could build a project that concerned women's football.
06:49 Do you remember that call, that moment?
06:52 Without going into details, but also who you told, the emotions,
06:55 I imagine it was a beautiful moment in your life.
06:57 Seeing this transition at Milan was something that,
07:03 on the one hand, was natural, in the sense that it was an environment known to me,
07:07 which I was trained in, I was given opportunities to grow,
07:13 and on the other hand it was something very big for a woman in this type of role.
07:23 I must say that already five or six years ago,
07:27 the strategic vision of the companies,
07:32 in wanting to include more female professional figures, has changed.
07:35 At that time, Milan was probably one of the first clubs to make a choice like this.
07:42 But in Milan, it was the first in Italy to contribute,
07:46 to treat girls as professionals right from the start.
07:49 These have always been very big goals that we have given ourselves,
07:55 that we have always shared, that the investments did not go only in the direction of results,
08:01 which are still just as important,
08:05 but that they also went towards larger strategic goals.
08:11 Treating girls as professionals and therefore marrying a theme of equity
08:18 has always been one of the goals of the club.
08:22 I have flashbacks from the first year, good memories, like the presentation in San Siro,
08:26 I remember the beautiful victory over Juventus,
08:28 because then we told the female Milan from the first days.
08:32 But I ask you, do you have a flashback, a moment that you keep in your heart from that first year?
08:38 The first time we wore the jersey in an official race,
08:43 we knew we were writing history.
08:47 So I can probably identify that as the beginning of this whole journey.
08:55 We did it in Bari, among other things, in a somewhat turbulent day.
09:02 But I think that was really the beginning of a journey that I hope will accompany Milan
09:11 and future generations as far as possible.
09:15 How has the league changed from that pink Bari Milan that we remember,
09:20 also in terms of memories, rather than the evolution that there was?
09:24 Many players have come from abroad, talented young players,
09:31 guys who still had international experience
09:36 and have given value in all respects.
09:39 They brought their experience, they brought their professionalism
09:43 and they have certainly raised the technical value of our league.
09:48 The clubs have structured themselves differently.
09:53 Today, probably one of the big gaps we have with abroad,
09:58 beyond the technical path, that we are still a little behind,
10:03 but I am sure that the whole movement will grow rapidly,
10:08 is that on the infrastructures.
10:10 So we have an important theme related to sports infrastructures,
10:15 because there is a lack of infrastructures dedicated to the women's team.
10:21 So we are lucky at the moment to have the Puma House of Football sports center.
10:31 In terms of growth, I think the club will evaluate other opportunities for the future.
10:38 As for the players, we are talking about the players of the league,
10:42 Milan has great Italian and foreign players,
10:46 and also an important youth sector.
10:48 We have seen the excellent results of recent years,
10:51 talking about Primavera, Under-17s, going down.
10:54 We will also talk about this, but I ask you,
10:56 you who have been a player and had to fight to have this important status of professionalism,
11:03 known in general, that the new generations have almost taken professionalism for granted,
11:09 because they find it under their eyes, or they have the same hunger as the older ones.
11:13 I think this is an interesting theme, both for the female and for the male.
11:20 So it's a theme that somehow brings us together with various facetators,
11:24 for different reasons, because often, maybe in youth football,
11:28 you get to high contracts very soon, and this could take away a little bit of hunger.
11:34 In women's football, there is no such problem, but there is an objective risk of giving for granted
11:42 and of not giving, not attributing a fair value to all opportunities.
11:48 The approach is very varied, in the sense that we still find girls who play exclusively for passion,
11:55 and on whom we have to work in making them understand that there is passion,
12:01 that must accompany their entire journey, but there is also sacrifice,
12:06 if there is a desire to transform this passion into work.
12:10 We have girls who have extremely clear ideas, who already know that their dream is to do this as a job,
12:20 we also have girls who need to experiment a little,
12:24 who, in the face of sacrifice, risk taking a step back, which is not part of men's football.
12:31 A generation that must be accompanied in choices,
12:36 the boys must be accompanied, the families must be accompanied,
12:39 and this implies a great effort from a training point of view,
12:44 by all the professional figures.
12:47 We have made a project this year that will involve the women's spring team,
12:58 the U17 and U15, the categories of the women's league.
13:02 It will include a work done with the support of our psychological area and various professionals
13:08 who will dedicate themselves to work on these aspects,
13:13 to work on being able to give them tools to bring out competitiveness,
13:21 wickedness and what we then call hunger as soon as possible.
13:26 Only those who will be able to objectively take that leap will be able to transform this passion into something more.
13:36 Many players in the youth sector of Milan also play as starters in the national teams.
13:43 Here, at a technical level, how is the youth sector going and how will it go in the near future?
13:51 How will it evolve?
13:52 We have certainly started to invest more in the youth sector.
13:58 The desire is to have more and more players who can be part of the first team,
14:06 coming from our youth sector.
14:09 Last year, for the first year, we opened a part of the invitation dedicated to the girls,
14:18 this also to demonstrate the investments and the direction of the investments.
14:24 So, there is certainly great attention, we want to enhance the talents of the territory
14:33 and at the same time have a look at both national and international talents.
14:40 The new generations are always more ready,
14:43 so paradoxically we see that 2008 is more ready than 2006 and 2012 is more ready than 2008.
14:50 This makes us hope for the future.
14:53 I must say that we are proud when we see, as in the case of this year,
15:01 the Iacodina winning the World Cup and being with us,
15:09 even if for a short time, but in loan from Barcelona.
15:14 She gratifies us by recognizing that we have contributed to her growth
15:21 and at the same time seeing Yuya Asagawa, a candidate for the Ballon d'Or,
15:26 and we were the club that managed to bring him to Europe.
15:30 So, these are certainly aspects that, from a scouting point of view, make us extremely proud.
15:39 Milan is also growing, and we all notice it, outside the pitch,
15:45 because also in terms of sponsorship, events, everything that revolves around the Feminine Milan,
15:51 has grown from ad hoc sponsorship, rather than many events of equality,
15:58 like the last one we did, like We Are Football, we were always pioneers in many things.
16:05 We managed to be long-term in anticipating some problems that have emerged over the past few years,
16:13 given by situations of ambiguity that can arise between players and staff,
16:20 or players and professionals, and we have dedicated a project to this, which we have launched.
16:27 Now we are working on another project that concerns the care of motherhood.
16:33 There are protections given by collective agreements,
16:36 but we would also like to place ourselves there as pioneers of something absolutely new,
16:43 at least as far as Italy is concerned.
16:46 From a strategic point of view, the goal is also to contribute to internationalizing the brand,
16:54 and therefore to create opportunities abroad, and to make us bearers of gender equity issues.
17:04 Today, the club certainly places the first women's team in the imaginary and in the organigram in a different way than in the past.
17:13 I must say that there is great attention and certainly a desire to grow this project.
17:25 We want to try to anticipate what will happen in the next few years for the women's team.
17:32 How do you imagine the women's team in five years?
17:35 We certainly have to shorten the gap a little with the big top clubs, not from a European point of view,
17:46 of course not from a management or organizational point of view,
17:51 of the opportunities that the girls have at their disposal, but from a purely technical point of view,
17:57 as well as all Italian teams.
18:00 I believe this is an important goal.
18:05 In five years, I believe that the club can be ready to compete for something really big internationally.
18:17 It is difficult because the growth of the women's movement is a growth.
18:22 At the moment there is a kind of plateau.
18:25 There has been a big leap with professionalism, there has been a big leap with the 2019 World Cup.
18:35 At this moment, in my opinion, there is a moment of settlement and then it will start again.
18:41 We are sure of this because we see it abroad.
18:47 Those who anticipated us have taken the same path.
18:50 We now simply have to narrow this distance with the outside world,
18:57 in terms of spectators, in terms of the quality of the show, in terms of infrastructure mainly.
19:04 Spectators who, compared to the first years, this is also natural but not taken for granted, have grown.
19:10 This makes us proud.
19:13 I thank them for the support they constantly give, both when things go well and when they go less well.
19:21 This year we have made a project that concerns the races.
19:27 We have tried to make the race event more welcoming for them,
19:34 creating more opportunities than in the past.
19:40 I believe that today, coming to follow a women's football race can be a pleasant experience,
19:50 both for the show and for the environment.
19:56 The Italian league, compared to the foreign leagues, we notice that there are fewer teams and the format is a little different.
20:06 Will there be a return to the past?
20:10 What can change?
20:13 This will depend on the growth in the lower categories.
20:18 I am referring to Serie B and Serie C. When we have more competitive players in Italy,
20:26 more Italian players and more male professional societies that want to invest in women's football,
20:37 I think the format could change.
20:41 However, we see that this format makes the league highly competitive and exciting from start to finish.
20:49 So, at this moment, the format works.
20:54 We started from your childhood dream. What is your dream now for you and for Milan Femminile?
21:00 To honor the path I have taken, today I need to win something, a trophy.
21:09 I would be happy if this could happen, beyond everything that has been built.
21:17 I think it is also fair compared to the investments that the club has made,
21:24 to the efforts made by the professional figures, by the girls.
21:30 Today, the victory is certainly missing.
21:35 I hope that we can find something as soon as possible.
21:40 [BOOM]