Rome – Daniele De Rossi is the new coach of Roma, he took over from Josè Mourinho who was sacked this morning (click here for the article). His luck as a footballer was his first training partners. In the secret of Daniele De Rossi's success, explained in unsuspecting times by the person directly involved, there were those mornings and afternoons spent in Trigoria as a young player added to the first team: in midfield, in Fabio Capello's post-scudetto Roma, yes Emerson, Pep Guardiola, Damiano Tommasi and Ivan Tomic competed for starting shirts, appearances and minutes, the wrong Serbian Roma response to Stankovic's transfer scam perpetrated by Lazio. Every session was a battle, but also a day at school, or rather a university course, in the eyes, head, feet and legs of a boy with great hopes who had just turned 18 and was dropped by the Primavera.
«Exceptional people and footballers: I was happy, but also very lucky, to have met them on my path», De Rossi has always proclaimed. Emerson was the “puppeteer” who guided him on the pitch, Guardiola a source of inspiration to learn from, Tommasi a true friend and Tomic the one who on 31 October 2001, in the 71st minute of a Roma-Anderlecht match in the Champions League, made room for him at the debut. Now, almost 32 years after entering the field with the almost jockey's shirt of the Palio di Siena that Roma used in Europe at the time, Daniele De Rossi has finally taken the big step, awaited and prepared for at least two years, of see and experience football as a coach of his Roma.
Since the flag was lowered as captain in May 2019, a move that triggered the popular uprisings of the fans who shortly after found more fuel to ignite in Totti's voluntary exit from the uncomfortable director's chair, it was the moment that everyone, without exception, was waiting for and knew that would have arrived. The romantic Argentine semester at Boca Juniors, his retirement from playing football, the coaching course in Coverciano and the intense experience as an active and active collaborator in the national team with coach Roberto Mancini both in the successful European Championships of 2021 and in the unfortunate World Cup qualifiers of 2022 were just long, very useful parentheses awaiting the call to a new life as a coach: in October 2022 on the bench of Spal, an unfortunate adventure in the academy that lasted 126 days and culminated with the dismissal due to disagreements with sporting director Lupo, and now on the yellow-red one that until yesterday was occupied by the oracle José Mourinho.
In the last two years, quite a few Serie A, B and C clubs have signed up more or less directly to win the debut on the bench for the blonde from Ostia, some even unsuspected. Between murky projects, political vetoes, the problem of the license up to a few months, other choices, unfavorable coincidences, Spal found the winning ticket in its pocket. «Many people talk about me as a good future coach, but they gave me the keys to the house here. Others, however, had doubts”, the words at the moment of the coronation in Ferrara. «I won't wear a jacket and tie on the bench. Thirty years of battles on the field are not forgotten, I will definitely wear sneakers”, the declared work dress code. Never tried as a footballer, almost in his time with the Primavera when by a whisker (or rather by Capello's choice who launched him into the first team) Empoli was unable to extract the loan from Roma's purse, Serie B was his first habitat, at 39 years old, as a coach.
«I struggled to find a team. Only Spal had the courage and madness to call me. When the call came, as we say in Rome, there was a “chill” and I wasn't afraid. In fact, for me, it's like going from fifth grade to sixth grade”, the explanation of how and why those who said no as a footballer to Juventus, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City said yes as a coach to a cadet job. “People quickly forget about your playing career, you can't rest on it forever.” Words that sound prophetic, with Roma stuck in ninth place in the standings.
Better not to think too much and throw yourself into the fray, without thinking too much: as in that Roma-Anderlecht (30 October 2001) of the absolute debut among the greats, in that Como-Roma on the neutral ground of Piacenza (25 January 2003) in the first outing as a starter , in that Italy-Norway (4 September 2004) on his debut with lots of goals in blue or in that indelible World Cup night in Berlin, after having served the disqualification for the elbow to the American McBride, kicking and throwing in the third rigor of the final lottery. How it happened, for better or for worse, between ups and downs, alternating joys and disappointments, in 616 appearances with the second skin of the Roma shirt, in 7 donnings of the Boca Juniors “camiseta” and in 117 appearances with the blue of the national team. Now it's time for Daniele to explore the life transition from captain to coach of his favorite team.
He is not even the first in the family, given that his father Alberto led the Roma Primavera for 19 years. «I had the opportunity to coach the first team several times – the confession of De Rossi senior – but I repeatedly refused precisely because Daniele was part of that group. There would have been problems and we could have given rise to chatter: in our relationship, however, one has always respected the other's spaces and roles.” The second De Rossi to be a footballer first, father Alberto did not go beyond Serie C, and then the trainer will try again to capitalize on the teachings received. Then by Emerson, Guardiola, Tommasi and Tomic in training in Trigoria, now implementing and reshaping the orders received from the many coaches he met in an almost twenty-year career.
«I have had many good, modern teachers, even if they trained me 10 years ago. I think of Luciano Spalletti, the things he told us are still cutting edge. Fabio Capello was a different footballer but he taught me a lot, even about management. Conte was perhaps the best from a motivational point of view, he was able to bring out things in the players that they didn't even think they had. Roberto Mancini makes football simple and has managed to bring back to everyone the pleasure of wearing the blue shirt and living Coverciano every day. I fell in love with Luis Enrique for what he proposed on the pitch and for how he behaved with us on a human level. Lippi was another great teacher: it is no coincidence that many of the 2006 World Champion national team became coaches.”
Curiosity, often expressed with tastes and choices that are out of the pack, has been a constant traveling companion in Daniele De Rossi's life. From the love for “Shantaram” by Gregory Davis Roberts (“The book I liked most of all”), to the musical passion for Oasis (“The most fascinating thing, if I had gone to City, would have been to meet the Gallagher brothers »), passing through his infatuation with Glasgow, visited in passing with the national team, or his liking for Pozzecco, another champion who ended up becoming a coach (now coach of the national basketball team).
A desire to discover, learn and know also applied in football and reported in the study of non-crossed coaches: «For me the best is Guardiola, the problem is that everyone understands what he does but almost no one can do it again. Many teams that do different things win and have fun. I also think of the various Klopps, Simeones, Gasperinis and Jurics. De Zerbi, for his part, honors Italian philosophy in the best way. However, I have to study and learn from everyone. We must respect and study all types of games, ideas and philosophies to create our own while respecting the characteristics of the players.” Before finding out if the coach's path will (re)take him back to Roma sooner or later, Daniele De Rossi established a starting point: «There is no such thing as “my football”,
I don't have to invent anything. People who are better than me have already done it.” At Roma he will not have to invent, but rebuild from the ashes of a ninth place in the standings.
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