Alessio Secco has enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top, taking his place as Juventus director of football at the tender age of 36, one of the youngest in the Italian game. In an exclusive interview recorded earlier this week, he shared an altogether personal account of his life in black and white with the Juventus Channel cameras: “I don’t know if I’m the youngest in the business, I’d say it’s pretty close between myself and Marco Valentini at Messina. I took the course back in 2003 and taking this post was always my ambition”.
“I grew up on bread and Juve. I was four years old when my father Sergio started out at Juventus, and he worked here for another 27 years. That’s how I’m so familiar with the values this glorious club stands for. Compared to the Juventus he was part of, things are little different today; back then there were only ten or so employees, now there are around eighty and in the meantime the world of football has also changed a great deal”.
Secco spoke a little on the earthquake which shook the club last summer: “So far it’s been a difficult year, with a thousand problems to be dealt with right from the start. But the team’s top of the league now and if things stay that way, it will be an experience to treasure, one which will stay with us for the rest of our lives. We can therefore count ourselves satisfied with what we’ve accomplished so far. The club has focused its attention on certain aspects which had gone astray, like showing a more human side for example. We’ve embarked upon a new path which could signal ground-breaking changes for Italian football as a whole”.
One particular episode from his first few months in charge springs to mind: “If I could change one thing it might be the sale of Mutu.:toast: If we’d had a little more certainty I wouldn’t have let him go, but at that stage no one even knew what division we’d be playing in and then it was suddenly all up to me to make the decision. Both Capello and I were responsible for the transfer market, but he had just left for Madrid and we were yet to decide upon a new coach. Was I puzzled by his departure? No, because I knew how much Spain and Real meant to him”.
And finally, as the season reaches its crucial stages and attention begins to shift to future transfer dealings, the director of football made the following appeal to the fans: “To this very day their support has never once waned. What I say to the fans is this: live this moment with the right sense of revenge and show the world that Juventus will always belong at the very summit of football. If we’re going to achieve the results we’ve set our sights upon, we all need to be pulling in the same direction, the club, the team and of course, all our supporters”.
Juventus.com
“I grew up on bread and Juve. I was four years old when my father Sergio started out at Juventus, and he worked here for another 27 years. That’s how I’m so familiar with the values this glorious club stands for. Compared to the Juventus he was part of, things are little different today; back then there were only ten or so employees, now there are around eighty and in the meantime the world of football has also changed a great deal”.
Secco spoke a little on the earthquake which shook the club last summer: “So far it’s been a difficult year, with a thousand problems to be dealt with right from the start. But the team’s top of the league now and if things stay that way, it will be an experience to treasure, one which will stay with us for the rest of our lives. We can therefore count ourselves satisfied with what we’ve accomplished so far. The club has focused its attention on certain aspects which had gone astray, like showing a more human side for example. We’ve embarked upon a new path which could signal ground-breaking changes for Italian football as a whole”.
One particular episode from his first few months in charge springs to mind: “If I could change one thing it might be the sale of Mutu.:toast: If we’d had a little more certainty I wouldn’t have let him go, but at that stage no one even knew what division we’d be playing in and then it was suddenly all up to me to make the decision. Both Capello and I were responsible for the transfer market, but he had just left for Madrid and we were yet to decide upon a new coach. Was I puzzled by his departure? No, because I knew how much Spain and Real meant to him”.
And finally, as the season reaches its crucial stages and attention begins to shift to future transfer dealings, the director of football made the following appeal to the fans: “To this very day their support has never once waned. What I say to the fans is this: live this moment with the right sense of revenge and show the world that Juventus will always belong at the very summit of football. If we’re going to achieve the results we’ve set our sights upon, we all need to be pulling in the same direction, the club, the team and of course, all our supporters”.
Juventus.com
Buy on AliExpress.com
