Grosseto-Livorno round trip, a total of three hours of travel and then training, fatigue and sweat. So every day, with so much sacrifice, but without burdens in the heart, because on that journey, Francesco Nunziatini was chasing a dream. Three hours that had to be filled also and above all by studying, by virtue of that very clear pact, with his family: yes to football, but without neglecting school. “In filling out his form to be delivered to the club, I wrote that he had only one defect: that of being the only one with certain values in my squad of players”. This is how his former coach at the time of the Livorno Under 15 team, Stefano Brondi, speaks of Francesco Nunziatini.
“I tried to make him wild, because in football and in competition in general, this is also needed. He was too polite even on the pitch and when he committed a slightly harder foul, he spent the next five minutes apologizing. No need, I told him. Just once, you don’t have to run after him to apologize. On the pitch you meet shrewd guys, who come from complex realities “.
THE ROLE – A teaching that Nunziatini has made his own, because now he takes the field with a completely different confidence in his own means. He also demonstrated this against Real Madrid, when he settled the fate of the match with a goal in reverse. A shot that you don’t even feel if you don’t feel comfortable. Clean play, excellent structure and insertions, these are the best qualities of Nunziatini, who during the retirement in the first team, with Inzaghi, did not do anything wrong. “I think he’s a midfield inside – explains Brondi – because it has perfect insertion times and can count on a great deadlift. He scored so many goals like that. Then he is so humble that he can cover the whole chain on the left well, but he gives the best from inside. Some coaches also set him up as a central defender, but more to disguise the flaws in the team, risking the involution of the boy. I, on the other hand, have no merit, I just tried to respect his characteristics, the only real goal that the coaches of the youth sectors should have “. A merit that many underestimate but that instead the players know how to recognize, considering that Nunziatini himself sees Brondi as the coach who has improved him the most.
WHO IS IT LIKE? – “The defect? He was a bit shy and felt the weight of some important game. We lost a Scudetto semifinal on penalties and he missed from eleven meters after playing a perfect match. I found him in the locker room crying, he threw the mistake on himself all night. Perhaps his humility does not make him good to understand the qualities he possesses and for this reason I have always told him that the performance must look for it in his head. He arrived at Inter at the right time, he will grow even more and improve. Then we will understand what his path will be, but he couldn’t say no. Last year he was also contacted by Fiorentina, but nothing came of it. Who does it look like? He is a player similar to Duncan, but better in the goal area. Robust and clean. He is not talented, but he has running and insertion, he is very strong in his head and has great stamina. He does not feel the fatigue. I think he has 7-8 goals in the championship ”.
REPORT FROM INTERELLO – The reports from Inter are also fantastic: “He is a boy from the past, he knows how to listen and seems born to be a footballer (analysis also shared by Brondi), he has the head of a professional. But it is simple, clean, in thoughts and ways of doing. A character who seems almost anachronistic, one of those who do nothing to get noticed but who have everything to be remembered “. Nunziatini is so special in its simplicity. At Inter and Chivu the burden and the honor of making him ready for the definitive leap.