Capello: “We came to blows with Gullit and Cassano. Juve? There are 38 championships”

On the occasion of the inauguration of the 2023/24 academic year of the university institute for linguistic mediators (Limec), Fabio Capello spoke directly from executive room 1 of the San Siro, location of the event, in front of 300 students. “This stadium is the most difficult pitch in Italy. Here you hear the public telling you everything, there is overwhelming pressure. Think of the Milan players, who grew exponentially during Covid because it was as if they were in training.” Capello then touched on the issue of communication, one of the values ​​to which he feels most attached. “If you go abroad, you have to understand where you work, communication is everything. In Spain the radios rule, and the newspapers (As and Marca) influence the public. You don’t have to rely on any faction. Every day the players read. When I coached the “England – continues the coach – there were 80 journalists in the press conferences, there is devastating pressure there. I prepared a week in advance to answer questions. In Russia I had an interpreter, in China as many as six. Communication in my work has been very important. In Italy social media has influenced everything, I don’t like how people communicate.”

leadership

—

On leadership, Capello explains: “Without the courage to face difficulties, objectives cannot be achieved. All excuses have short legs. Alibis are for losers. Those who win start from defeats and analyze them. When I held meetings afterwards the games I lost, I first heard what my staff thought, then I decided how to intervene.” Hence the anecdote about the 2006/2007 championship won with Real Madrid (the second). “We were playing against Mallorca, we lost 1-0 in the first half, we had to win to triumph. My players were all scared, they made bad passes. At half-time I made everyone sit on the floor, I moved Roberto Carlos who was in front of me, and I sat down me too next to them. I said: ‘We have recovered 9 points from Barcelona and now we have to give away a championship?’ I had to give him peace of mind, if I screamed I would put even more pressure on him. Do you know how it ended? 3-1 for us, champions of Spain (applause starts, ed.).”

Madrid

—

Madrid evokes memories for Capello, for better, but also for worse, like when he had to resolve the problem of Ronaldo Il Fenomeno. “In February of that year (2007, ed.) I decided to send him away, he was someone who liked to party and involved the group. One day van Nistelrooij arrived and told me: ‘Mister, here in the changing rooms there is a smell of alcohol ‘. It was true. Ronaldo weighed 94 kg that year. In Korea, at the 2002 World Cup, he weighed 82. I told him to lose weight… he reached 92.5 (laughs, ed.)”. R9 thus moved to Milan: “Berlusconi – says Capello – called me one day to ask me for advice on a hypothetical purchase. I advised him against it, telling him that he was a party animal, he only thought about women. He told me, ‘ok, thanks Fabio’. The day after: Ronaldo at Milan”.

models

—

Capello then answered the students’ questions, curious to learn more about a character who, first as a player, and then as a coach, was a winner. “My references? When I played Luis Suarez of Inter. I’ll say three coaches: Giambattista Fabbri, Helenio Herrera and Niels Liedholm, I liked his psychology. I feel like a fusion of these three.” Capello doesn’t hide and also talks about the complicated relationships with some of his former players: “With Gullit and Cassano I put my hands on myself. Every time, before a match, Cassano ordered French fries. It was unacceptable. I got more angry with the chef who with him. I invented the term ‘cassanata'”.

talent

—

Fabio also analyzes the care of talent, which in his opinion is “too suppressed by the schemes”. Keyword: teaching. “Now you can’t observe anything anymore. I took Ibra from Juventus and he didn’t know how to kick or head. Then look at what he has become. Van Basten had the problem in running up during free kicks, I noticed it and the following Sunday he scored from a free kick. This is to say that making schemes is easy, but I think correcting mistakes is one of the most difficult things.” In the art of winning, for Capello there was also the art of failing, as in his second Milan (1997-98): “It was the biggest mistake of my life to come back. Berlusconi had called me, for him I had a gratitude that went beyond everything. I asked Florentino Perez to let me go, but in Milan I did everything wrong. The championship was disastrous, but that experience taught me a lot.”

calciopoli

—

Capello closes between Calciopoli, passion for art and current affairs. “At Juve there are 38 championships. We won on the pitch, we had a team that was too strong, we didn’t need any help.” On art: “Yes, it’s my greatest passion off the field. I’ve always told my players to dedicate some time to this world instead of changing three or four machines a year.” The final comment: “Which team would I like to coach today? Barça, Real or Bayern. In Italy I gave everything.”