Aspire in the World Fellows Book - 2023

/87 Growing is one thing, aging is another. You crossed a lot of phases during your Juventus carrier: ‘the Golden Boy’. the ‘Superstar’, the ‘Struggling Player’ and after a long injury absence, the ‘Old Captain’. What did you ask to your coaches duringeachof this period? What about your younger teammates? You’re growing, you’re aging and era by era arrived new, younger teammates. Were they respectful?Were they scared of you? Doyou feel that they liked to surpass you? The semifinal goal against Germany, inwhichMaterazzi recommend something and thenwhen you shout to Gilardino in themiddle over 80,000 people and he heard you. I’ve never asked anything of my coaches. I had amazing coaches, from Trapattoni in the beginning to Lippi, Capello and Ancelotti. If I think back, I would love to ask more things. I’m a shy guy. If the coach says go right, I go right, I don’t question things, because I believe in teamwork. I suggest to my kids now to ask if something goes wrong, or something is not clear. You need to deal with your coach, day by day, you need to ask him, you need to create a relationship with him and hope the coach has the same mentality. As Lopetegui said, we need to create different strategies, have a shared mentality and the coaches are there in order to help and to achieve more with the players. When you are a player you’re thinking in one way and when you’re a coach you’re thinking in a completely different way. So that’s the big challenge that players and coaches have now. I think I hadamix of all these emotions especially at Juventus. Before the injury and after the injury is different. 2006 changed everything for us, we got relegated and came up. Another chapter started, not only at Juventus, but another chapter of my life. I had incredible teammates, playing with somebody that I didn’t get along with, like Simone Inzaghi’s brother, Filippo, but we scored tons of goals. Then, it happened the same with Trezeguet after and then with Ibrahimovic. I always thought about the achievement at the beginning of every game, which was winning, not scoring goals. That’s also one of the answers of your previous questions about why I scored so many goals: because goals was a consequence of our play. Sometimes somebody asks, “Do you remember that goal?” Oh, yes, I remember. “Do you know that? That’s the 200th goal that you scored”. I don’t count goals in that That’s at the end of the game that happened, and Gilardino told me: “I heard you”. “You heard me? We are in the extra time, at 119’ minute, we score one goal with Grosso and we were 1 – 0 up. So. the most important thing is, as Italian, to hold it, only one left. So, Germany restart to play and they have this long ball into the middle and I was actually the last defender on the on the left side, I had ran back. way, of course I know the numbers now, but not during my career. Because my first achievement was winning and improve. “How can I become a better player? How can I score more goals or make more assists or become a better teammate for my teammates?” Then I become a captain and it was “How can be a better captain?” We jumped into a nightmare in 2006: “How can we solve this problem in Serie B?” I always put 100% on the field, even more sometimes, sacrificing everything. I’m happy that I did it in that way, because it’s the only way that I know. STAR CHAT