To grow talents who are able to consolidate themselves, we need to think about them in a different way. Abroad they have been able to do it, here perhaps a new era is beginning
There are no players who are too old or too young, but players who are good or bad (or not up to par, not to be too brutal). An old rule of football, of sport, is often interpreted in an ambiguous and different way in Italy, as if it were a handball in the area. Especially when it comes to children, growth must be accompanied by trust, courage and patience. This last virtue is very rare in our football, the understanding of even some errors due to inexperience is often limited, little time is left for everyone, even for coaches who perhaps dare to make the bold move, that of confirming a boy even if he is unable to immediately bring out the qualities for which he was promoted among the greats. And then there are the locker rooms that grumble or those that welcome, teach, where by locker room we mean a working group, but this happens in all professional fields. Pio Esposito’s successes in this period are under the eyes of the most intransigent judges: first goal in Serie A on 27 September, in Cagliari; first center in the national team the other evening in Tallinn. Without suddenly becoming the savior of a nation that played its last World Cup match eleven years ago, Esposito is doing justice to an act of courage by his coach at Inter, Cristian Chivu.