Aspire in the World Fellows Book - 2023

/101 Youwere the captain from 2001 to 2014, and therewere a lot ofworlds that would overlap, because things change so quickly in football. Howdid youmanage all that? I was the captain of great champions, every one of them could have been a good captain. In me, I think they could see a person that would leave personal interests aside, and I did everything I could for the team. I arrived in Italy when I was quite young. I grew up as a man and player here in Italy, Italian football gave so much. I think my teammates would have always respected me the same even if I had not been the captain. Going into thedetails, of course you need professionalism, you need to be serious, but very often, you do not focus so much on elements like sleep, diet, complementary training. How important were these factors for you? They are fundamental, they are crucial, if you want to play at a high level. At Inter, we played in a lot of tournaments on Wednesdays and on Sundays, with the champions league, so you need to have focus on all of these factors, sleep, diet, prevention. And then as you grow older, the more in depth you need to go. I used to be quite obsessed with these details. I always tried to get to the match, as well as I could. I always tried to do everything I could to feel good. Strength. How important is it? Is it something innate? Is it something you can educate and develop? You need to work in your strength. This is something that I learned in Italy. When I played in Argentina, we were focused on it, but in a different way. Here I learned how to develop my strength in an optimal way. Strength for me used to be, and still is crucial. If you do a good workout for your strength, you can prevent a lot a injuries. When you go and sign a contract, if you are strong it is more difficult to get injured. For me strength was part of my daily routine that I always used to follow. Another important thing is themental aspect. Did you have a sport psychologist? Did you attempt to get psychological help? I think your mental health is the most important thing. Everything starts in your mind. For my abilities, my identity, for the way I am, for the person I am, it is my personality to be very positive. I always try to look at the positive side of things. I used to be very strong psychologically. Back in my time, we did not use to have so many people that we could turn to, to take care of our mental health. At the end of the day, we are all human beings, we all have difficult moments throughout our life that need to be supported. Mental healthwould bring me to the unforgettable semifinal in the Champions League, Inter – Barcelona. The teamwas left with 10 players, hadMourinho prepared you for that? There is a great example, when a team wants to realize a purpose, an objective, and they do everything that they can, they will get the result. Us, as a team, we were able to face the challenging moments, against the strongest teams. Barcelona, with Messi, Pique, Ibrahimovich, all players that were 15 years younger than us, and after twenty minutes we were one man down. But at that point I think that, you know, something clicked in all of us. We wanted to make to the final game and we all sacrificed ourselves for that goal. We helped each other in the best way that we could and that is howwe got that. Being supportive in a team, how important is that? When you are part of a team, it is crucial to be supportive of your teammates, because throughout the game there are different moments where you need your mates, and a winning team is a team that needs to have that spirit. STAR CHAT