Trento, Oct 12 (LaPresse) – "In the National Team, I tried to transfer my way of being and maybe I was wrong. Sometimes the players did not respond well. Perhaps there was a need for more lightness to keep the enormous pressures at bay. I tried to make them understand that football is a serious matter. I always asked myself how the players would take my words," said Luciano Spalletti during the last day of the Festival of Sport in Trento.
"There are more and more people who find excuses not to take important responsibilities and fewer who put their face on the line, playing along with whatever might happen," Spalletti added.
"What matters is being collaborative and passing on positive feelings. Athletes who succeed in this make decisions collaboratively, and then any team becomes special. It's not just a matter of talent. Gattuso, in his way of doing football, was talented. And not everyone has that," Spalletti emphasized.
"Strong players are needed; when I got involved, it was because someone had an outsized ego. I loved all my players, defending them fiercely against everything and everyone," the former coach continued.
"In my own way, I am a believer. Animals have that loyalty that never betrays. I feel good with the land and in the land; I get out of the cage I sometimes feel in the city. In the countryside, there is space and the right timing, a bit like in football. The earth teaches that there are seasons and they come to take you home."