Sandro Saccoccio has organized holidays for Parma players for years: “Buffon didn’t even choose the goal”
Footballers have almost unlimited holiday budgets, but little time to get organised. Thus many rely on specialists such as Sandro Saccoccio, the vacationer guru who for twenty years has planned the holidays of the players, from Buffon to Batistuta, sending them some to California, some to the Maldives.
Hello Sandro, can you tell us how your passion for travel was born?
“As a child I lived on a 100-hectare farm near Fiumicino, planes came and went from my house, I spent my time watching them fascinated. At first I wanted to be a pilot, then I discovered how wonderful it is to organize an event”.
As?
”I began by organizing a ski week for my classmates, for years I took everyone skiing on Monte Livata, where I also founded a ski club to involve the other classes as well and lengthen my stays in the mountains”.
Then you landed at Parma
”I arrived in Parma in ’95, where I immediately fell in love with the city, I organized all the away games for the team. At the end of the season, the players came to me and had their holidays organized”.
Who were your customers?
”The one I was most fond of is Gianluigi Buffon, he didn’t even decide the try, he gave me a blank check and let me manage everything. Then the rest of the team also passed by me: Dino Baggio, Crespo, Thuram, Cannavaro, Church, Asprilla and many others…”.
Who was the hardest to please?
“Luigi Sartor, a former Inter defender, a fanatic of roller coasters, on every trip he wanted to spend at least a couple of days at Disneyland with his friends. I organized charters just to take him to these amusement parks, he always gave me a gift to thank me of knives”.
Did players from other teams also contact you?
“Of course, the players are all friends and spread the word. For example, one day a certain Gabriel called me from an anonymous number, we at Parma didn’t have any Gabriel in the team, so at first I didn’t understand and I asked him for the his name was Batistuta”.
Did you want to go on vacation?
“Yes, I organized a very simple trip for him and his family. The problem with Argentines is that as soon as they have a permit they want to go back to their hometown. In fact, I’ve never been able to send Hernan Crespo around Europe, this it’s kind of my regret.”
Who are the enemies of those who organize trips?
“I have no doubts about this, they are certainly the showgirls. They always asked me for the entire itinerary of the trip. This is how they prepared the journalists, they put a couple at each stop so they could be paparazzi with the unfortunate person on duty”.
The solution?
“A series of restaurants inaccessible to the public, with entrances from the kitchen or from the goods unloading area. I still have a notebook where I keep all the places with hidden entrances”.
What is the stay you organized with the most care?
“It wasn’t a holiday organized for a footballer, on the contrary, it’s a holiday organized around a footballer. Let me explain, one year I decided to focus on the Asian market, so I asked the club to buy a Japanese footballer. The president listened to me , so we bought Hidetoshi Nakata from Roma. He was a real superstar at home, so I organized One day with Nakata, a trip to the city of Parma to see the Tardini, taste our local products and get to know the legendary Nakata. Five thousand Asians came, an incredible amount. One of these was Mrs. Mitsubishi who fell in love with the local cuisine, she returned to Japan with 20 wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, 220kg of ham and 200kg of culatello”.
Was that your greatest intuition?
“Together with the away match in Moscow in 1999, when Parma won the UEFA Cup. That year we had a group of champions, I sensed it immediately and decided, on my own initiative, to immediately rent the hotel for the final, the chosen it was the Marriott in Moscow. Obviously I kept it a secret from everyone, except Francesca Tanzi (the president’s sister), when we passed the semi-final I told the team that I had booked the hotel months before, I will never forget their smiles”.
And the coaches, on the other hand, have they ever passed by you?
“A footballer would never tell his coach where he spends his holidays, that’s why I’ve never organized anything for the various coaches who have moved from Parma. Even if I’ve always had an excellent relationship with Malesani and Ancelotti”.
But where are your holidays?
“Now I manage a resort in Kura Kura, an atoll in the Indian Ocean near Bali. To reach it you have to take four planes but it’s worth it, the sunsets I’ve seen there are the most beautiful of my life”.
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