Mazzitelli at “Manlio Selis” Tournament

Luca Mazzitelli spoke in Budoni at the presentation of the 29th edition of the “Manlio Selis” Under-14 Youth Football Tournament, taking place in Gallura from April 30th to May 3rd. Honored with the “Ragazzi del Selis” award, given to players who played in the tournament as youngsters and later achieved their dream of becoming professionals, the Rossoblu midfielder thanked the “Selis” organization from the stage, having won it in 2008 with the Roma youth team: “This is one of the first tournaments I’ve played at an international level; these are experiences that foster comparison and help you grow.”

Mazzitelli then spoke to Sky Sport on the sidelines of the event: “It’s a pleasure to be here today. We’re in a beautiful place, in a country I’ve had the opportunity to get to know better this year. There’s a lot of work behind the “Selis” tournament; it’s an important youth tournament, allowing for comparison between many different realities, between teams from different countries and continents. It’s great to see how they work abroad, too, while maintaining our value: despite the historic moment Italian football is going through, it’s certainly not all bad.”

On Cagliari’s form in the week leading up to the match against Atalanta at the Unipol Domus: “There are five games left in the season, we need to get as many points as possible, starting with the next match, to secure safety as quickly as possible. It’s a goal we’ve been working towards since the beginning of the year, and now we need to finally achieve it. Atalanta is a team playing for Europe, and under Coach Palladino they’ve maintained a good pace. It will be a very tough match, but at this point in the season they all are, as points count even more. We’ll play in our stadium, with the support of our fans: we’ve shown that at home we can cause problems and beat anyone. Our destiny is in our hands, we’re ready to go and get the points we need to achieve our goal.”