From the air, Farioli was reminded of the football craze in the Netherlands, he said at the press conference in the Utrecht stadium. From the plane, the Italian saw many illuminated football fields and of course the Arena, shining on a Champions League night. “I took pictures of it.”
He doesn’t want to say much about Ajax, he emphasizes. Of course he will soon watch the match against Galatasaray, but the Italian will not be persuaded to point out the weaknesses of his old team. “That’s not nice,” he says.
Canal cruise
He could also see his old house from the plane. He loves Amsterdam, even though he barely had time to go into the city last year. He was at the Toekomst so often that he only had time to take a boat tour on the canals with his family a day before his departure. “That is part of the job. We live in stadiums, hotels and the training complex,” says Farioli.
Since he left for FC Porto, he is still in contact with the people he worked with at Ajax. According to the Italian, those memories of Ajax will last forever. “But I would have been proud if I had given Ajax the title back.”