Aspire in the World Fellows Book - 2025

58 59 11TH ASPIRE ACADEMY GLOBAL SUMMIT ASPIRE IN THE WORLD FELLOWS I spent ten years with Carlo Ancelotti as my coach. For me, he’s the best at managing big players and big egos. He showed calmness every day. We played Champions League finals, derbies and semifinals against Inter and players couldn’t sleep for two days. And Carlo would say, “Guys, it’s just a football game. If we win, we win. If we lose, it doesn’t matter.” Now as a coach, you must do the same, give calmness to the players, understand when they need a hug, when you have to be strong. That’s difficult, because every player has a different character: Italians, players from Eastern Europe, players from everywhere in the world. I don’t go inside the locker room now; that’s the players’ private place. But in Italy we drink a lot of coffee, so I stay near the coffee machine, because the players always come there. Building relationships is essential: if you have a good relationship and you need to be tough, he accepts it. If you never talk to him and suddenly, you’re strong, he puts a wall between you and him. Exactly. When we lost, he understood what we were feeling. He always had the perfect word at the perfect moment. If I made a mistake and we lost 1–0, he came to me: “Alessandro, what happened?” And I told him how I read the situation. That connection was very important. Very difficult. The big mistake is comparing young players with our generation. They’re different, not better or worse, just different. Sometimes they’re not hungry to win. You lose and it doesn’t matter to them. For a coach, that’s terrible but we’re paid to find solutions. No excuses. This generation needs different things, so we must study, understand, and find the right way in. Someone pays you to find the solution and then it’s up to you. You must be clear in everything, tactics, positions, timing. You sign for a club and sometimes you must win immediately. You don’t have a month to change things slowly. For me, the first step is studying the players. Players are more important than the system. You must put them in the best condition to perform. Maybe I played 4-3-3 for two years and won the league, it doesn’t matter in a new club. In a new team, I study the players first. You can’t ask everyone to do everything, but after that, you show the system you want. But the players are the center of everything. You shared the dressing roomwith great superstars. Can you tell us something about the psychology inside that environment? Ancelotti always says human relationships are the most important thing with players, do you agree? How difficult is it to create empathywith young players who have their own fragilities? Gareth Southgate reminded us how important short, clear messages are. But coaches today also deal with a lot of data. How do you manage that? STAR CHAT Absolutely. In my first five years as a coach, I studied everything, maybe 16 hours a day. I prepared every exercise, every detail. But I forgot to look at the players. The system was more important than the players, and that was wrong. Players ask questions, and even a young player might ask something. If you don’t know the answer, you’re dead. That’s why we must study them. Balance. You need experienced players and young players. Everyone must know clearly who speaks in difficult moments. The young ones must be protected. That’s how you build a strong group. Preparation matters, because players see immediatelywhen you’re not ready. What matters most in building a strong group?