AAGS 2021

22 Star Chat You are well-known as “The Maestro”, what does it mean to you? Was it a responsibility or a motivation? In the beginning it was a nickname given to me for the way I play and understand the game. Being a midfielder, maybe they saw me as someone who could manage the timing of the orchestra. Therefore, they nicknamed me like that and then over the years it was a source of pride to always continue to do well, showing that this nickname could fit really well for me. What is the secret behind a long career performing at the top level? The secret was the passion, the desire to always improve and reach important goals, because even if I was winning the championship, the next goal was always the one to reach. I think that to play so many years at certain levels, the thing you need to have in your head and belly is the passion and fun for doing this job. I always had them there from an early age until I finished, and it led me to achieve all my successes. From the training perspective, what has changed during all these years? Times have changed. From when I started to when I finished, the way we train and the way we eat has changed. This has helped to have an even longer career. I started in the 90s and until the end of the 90s, the classic physical preparation was long runs. Then, in the last few years, when I arrived at Juventus, I have changed the type of work. I have worked a little more on strength, also because the more the years go by and the thing you miss most is perhaps the strength. So, I changed my training method, which has brought me great benefits. You’ve played more than 850 games at an elite level; how did you prepare mentally for the game? Luckily, I have always lived it very peacefully. In fact, many teammates got angry with me because they always saw me very calm. They were more tense, they thought more about all their things, while I was able to joke even five minutes before the game and then when I went on the pitch I was focused anyway. I have always had this strength, to be able to play in any situation, in any game, I was well focused. So, it was real luck not to be an apprehensive person with so many doubts in my head. How different is live football from the manager’s perspective compared to the player’s one? When I was a football player, I thought to myself, I could at best give some advice to teammates, but when the game ended, I knew what I had done, for better or for worse, and that was it. When you are a coach, you must think of thirty different people with thirty different minds, who is happy, who is not happy, who had problems. So, the match and the day are never over, because as soon as a training or a match ends you must already think about the one after. You must think about who you must talk to, who you saw with a different mind, maybe one is a little more down. Therefore, the daily work goes on 24 hours a day. While as a player when you finished, you were also able to disconnect. Did your experience as a player help you now in your role as a manager to understand the player’s needs? In my opinion it is very important because you can understand what a player may have in mind. Also, because I have been in a locker room for more than twenty years, you feel and perceive the sensations. So, you see them when there is Andrea Pirlo