Aspire in the World Fellows Book - 2025

62 63 11TH ASPIRE ACADEMY GLOBAL SUMMIT ASPIRE IN THE WORLD FELLOWS When I set the rules, I also decide how to manage the problems. For small issues, the group or the captain resolves them. For big problems, I step in. And if I step in, the player has a big problem. I imagine you set rules in the dressing room. How do you deal with players who break them? Passion is my life. My wife often tells me, “Alessandro, what are you doing?” My family lives in Miami, and I live in Rome because I work in Italy. She says I’m crazy: “We have everything, stay with us on the beach!” But she doesn’t understand it. Passion is difficult to explain to people outside our world. Sometimes she organizes a trip to the Caribbean. After one day she says, “We have to stay here a week.” And I think, “No, come on, I want to go home.” I played a Champions League final, that’s the highest adrenaline level you can have. To feel that again, I’d have to go to the moon. A Caribbean vacation can’t do that. Mywifedoesn’t understand, and that’s a problem! Yes. I go everywhere. If someone calls me on the other side of the world, I’m curious. I played in Italy, lived in Canada and Miami, played in India for three weeks. I love discovering new cultures, and I love giving my experience to different places. It’s amazing. It has changed. I’ve been coaching for ten years. I started with building from the back and finding the third man. Now football is changing — many teams defend man-to-man, so you can’t find the third man anymore. Sometimes you have space, sometimes they press you high, so you always need a plan B. Not just one idea. Today, if you don’t have a plan B, you lose games. I have a lot, but I can’t tell them! The funniest player I ever played with was Gennaro Gattuso. Number one and then Paul Gascoigne. I was 15, a kid at Lazio. Sometimes the first team called me for training. Paul treated the kids the same as the adults, strong tackles, everything. Back then the kids weren’t allowed to talk, we just played. One day in a small game, I injured him. The biggest player at Lazio, and I broke his leg. I remember leaving the facility with my brother, hiding in the car because supporters were outside. It was maybe the worst day of my life but Gascoigne was a top, top player and a funny guy. You speak with great passion about your job. How do you control it? Coaching comes with many risks, but they seem to attract you. What is your football philosophy? One final thing. You shared the dressing roomwith big superstars, known for their jokes. Can you share a funny story?