🎙️ INTERVIEW | Mister Pisacane with Il Corriere dello Sport

Rossoblu coach Fabio Pisacane spoke exclusively to the pages of “Il Corriere dello Sport,” on newsstands today. He shared anecdotes and goals, spanning past, present, and future. Below is an excerpt from his lengthy interview:

GROWTH OBJECTIVE
“We’re the third-youngest team in Serie A in terms of average player age, yet we only messed up in the match against Sassuolo. We need to have faith in our young players, without overprotecting them, and be guided by a few “old” players like Mina, Luperto, Deiola, and Pavoletti. We haven’t yet reached our full potential due to injuries and fitness, but that can’t be achieved in three months. Beyond winning, we need to grow every time: that’s the goal.”

THE COACH’S IDEAS
“For me, football is vision, courage, responsibility, organization, and collaboration between departments. Sacrifice. Tactics, technique, and character are trained: but the heart of the work remains the person. I watch match after match, any league, any country, and every time I try to steal an idea: I like seeing how they defend in Scotland or how they build in the Premier League or Serie C. I trained in Salzburg; I believe in the intensity and pace of international football, but I’m from an Italian background. You have to evolve while staying true to your principles. Yes, I pay great attention to details; I write everything down in notebooks I collect. One per season. Before matches, I isolate myself for five minutes to remind myself where I come from and what I fight for. It makes me feel alive. In my opinion, coaches have a calling; we’re like priests: we have to listen and put our egos aside. I’m an empath.”

CAGLIARI BY ADOPTION
“Cagliari is a fantastic city: it’s been my home for eleven years, I’m a Cagliari native by adoption. For me, Cagliari means football, work, and family: my sons Andrea, Francesco, Matias, and Marco all arrived here within days of being born. Cagliari is heart and soul, a fundamental chapter in my story. I bought a house in Bastione, and it’s got everything. I’m just steps from the sea and right in the middle of life. Coaching Cagliari is a double responsibility. A gift for my 40th birthday? Staying up. Better if it’s as soon as possible. Cagliari deserves to stay where it is, its natural place.”

ROOTS AND IDENTITY
Naples, Genoa, and Cagliari tell the story of my journey. Naples is my roots, I was born there and my family is there: there I learned to fight and get back up. In Genoa, I was reborn and built up. In Cagliari, I earned Serie A, a new identity, and a different sense of serenity that I feel I honor every day. If I can give something back to these places, I do: gratitude is fundamental in life. You get what you give. The match against Genoa? It will be a special one: I owe everything to the San Paolo hospital in Savona. It’s from Genoa—from the youth sector to my first-team debut—that I started out, and it was at Marassi that I played my hundredth Serie A game with Cagliari. It was against Sampdoria, in Genoa, that I led Cagliari’s Primavera team for the first time as a full-time coach. I learned so much in that city: my first dreams, the strength of a lion when I arrived from a football school in Naples, the pain. There’s so much inside. Today, however, I live it with more balance.

ON YOUNGSTERS
“Gym? Marco has great prospects, but football is a factory of illusions: he’s on everyone’s lips now, but he needs to stay true to himself and work harder than he’s doing. The foundation is promising, but he still has a long way to go. Cagliari has other important young players who need to think like Marco: for example, Obert, who comes from the youth system, Idrissi, who came from the Academy. Prati, who’s talented. They have a great future up front.”

CAPRILE IN THE NATIONAL TEAM OF ITALY
“Elia is a leader, he has talent and personality. His call-up to the national team is well-deserved. He’s a hard worker, very attentive to detail, he arrives first and leaves last. He must continue like this. It’s a huge pleasure to be part of his growth journey.”

YERRY MINA’S CHARISMA
“Mina is a player who epitomizes charisma and a willingness to fight. It’s unfortunate that he’s been pilloried by the media: in the past, there were truly violent players, with bites, headbutts, and harsh tackles, so why not say that Morata’s nervousness stems from his association with a champion? Yerry plays a game within a game with skill but without violence. What’s happening with him today is also an insult to the VAR. I wouldn’t want him to be prevented from playing his games as he always has.”