“Leaving New York, never easy,” sang R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe. Leaving Rome, the Eternal city, might have been just as complicated for Simone Inzaghi after 22 years as first player then coach at Lazio. But the 45-year-old has landed on his feet at Inter Milan. It helps that after just five months he had already achieved what every other Inter coach in the past decade could not: he has led the 2010 winners into the Champions League knockout stage.
“It was so weird that Inter hadn’t got past the group stage in ten years,” says Inzaghi, who has maintained his predecessor’s 3-5-2 set-up. “I found a team that performed very well in previous years with [Antonio] Conte and this formation. My job has been made easier thanks to the two years the team spent playing with Antonio.”
Inzaghi, though, has added a light touch of his own. “The team has to play freely. You have to allow your players a bit of freedom so they can express themselves better on the pitch. I think they’re doing that.”
It’s an approach to life that he has enjoyed since childhood, playing alongside his elder brother Filippo, three years his senior. “Football has been my life from a very young age. When I was small, I dreamt of becoming a football player. I played with my brother every day. I tried to read the [Gazzetta dello Sport] newspaper even before I started going to school.
“We supported Piacenza, which was later where we started our careers. They were in Serie C at the time and our father took us to the San Siro to watch games. We used to play together in the park, so it was thanks to my brother that I was able to play against children three years older than me. This helped me in the beginning, then throughout my career as a player. Watching him achieve so much has been a big help and source of motivation.”
Simone Inzaghi had a very good career as a striker, including scoring four times for Lazio in a Champions League game against Marseille in 2000. But it’s not comparable to the success of Filippo, a tormentor of European defences for years and twice a European Cup winner with the Rossoneri. As a coach, however, Simone is well ahead of Superpippo, who is at Brescia in Serie B this term. Loved by Lazio fans, who gave him an emotional welcome when Inter played in Rome this season, the younger Inzaghi has stepped out of his comfort zone for this new challenge.
“In my five years at Lazio we always managed to qualify for European competition – and we won three trophies, so it was rewarding. Arriving at Inter was very emotional. I’m at a huge club and we’re on the same path. I was immediately integrated. It’s only been a short time, but it feels like I’ve been here for much longer. There was immediately a good feeling with the team, the club and the supporters. They are our secret weapon. Masses of them always follow us, not just when we play at the San Siro. They really motivate us.”
As for settling in Milan, it’s not been so tough leaving Rome after all. “Whenever I have a little bit of free time I go into the city and I feel the European atmosphere; there are always so many foreigners. It’s a modern city and living my everyday life here is great. Football is always present. Inter and Milan have made history in the past 40 or 50 years… I hope they’ll start to win as much again.”
“Leaving New York, never easy,” sang R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe. Leaving Rome, the Eternal city, might have been just as complicated for Simone Inzaghi after 22 years as first player then coach at Lazio. But the 45-year-old has landed on his feet at Inter Milan. It helps that after just five months he had already achieved what every other Inter coach in the past decade could not: he has led the 2010 winners into the Champions League knockout stage.
“It was so weird that Inter hadn’t got past the group stage in ten years,” says Inzaghi, who has maintained his predecessor’s 3-5-2 set-up. “I found a team that performed very well in previous years with [Antonio] Conte and this formation. My job has been made easier thanks to the two years the team spent playing with Antonio.”
Inzaghi, though, has added a light touch of his own. “The team has to play freely. You have to allow your players a bit of freedom so they can express themselves better on the pitch. I think they’re doing that.”
It’s an approach to life that he has enjoyed since childhood, playing alongside his elder brother Filippo, three years his senior. “Football has been my life from a very young age. When I was small, I dreamt of becoming a football player. I played with my brother every day. I tried to read the [Gazzetta dello Sport] newspaper even before I started going to school.
“We supported Piacenza, which was later where we started our careers. They were in Serie C at the time and our father took us to the San Siro to watch games. We used to play together in the park, so it was thanks to my brother that I was able to play against children three years older than me. This helped me in the beginning, then throughout my career as a player. Watching him achieve so much has been a big help and source of motivation.”
Simone Inzaghi had a very good career as a striker, including scoring four times for Lazio in a Champions League game against Marseille in 2000. But it’s not comparable to the success of Filippo, a tormentor of European defences for years and twice a European Cup winner with the Rossoneri. As a coach, however, Simone is well ahead of Superpippo, who is at Brescia in Serie B this term. Loved by Lazio fans, who gave him an emotional welcome when Inter played in Rome this season, the younger Inzaghi has stepped out of his comfort zone for this new challenge.
“In my five years at Lazio we always managed to qualify for European competition – and we won three trophies, so it was rewarding. Arriving at Inter was very emotional. I’m at a huge club and we’re on the same path. I was immediately integrated. It’s only been a short time, but it feels like I’ve been here for much longer. There was immediately a good feeling with the team, the club and the supporters. They are our secret weapon. Masses of them always follow us, not just when we play at the San Siro. They really motivate us.”
As for settling in Milan, it’s not been so tough leaving Rome after all. “Whenever I have a little bit of free time I go into the city and I feel the European atmosphere; there are always so many foreigners. It’s a modern city and living my everyday life here is great. Football is always present. Inter and Milan have made history in the past 40 or 50 years… I hope they’ll start to win as much again.”
Sliding doors. In a different universe, Stefano Pioli might have been delivering the mail and watching Milan in the Champions League on TV instead of directing operations from the touchline.
“My father was a postman and I always admired his protective and confident figure when I was a kid,” he says. “I tried to follow in his footsteps, but football has always been part of my life. I started playing in the yard and then my friends and I joined the neighbourhood team [in Parma]. I was a little bit luckier than them.”
When Pioli was a ball boy in the Parma youth academy, a future Milan coach was starring in midfield. “I was 15 years old and [Carlo] Ancelotti was one of the best players out there. When the first-teamers threw away their boots, we took them and used them, maybe fixing them if there was anything wrong. Those boots were very good.”
Ancelotti won the Champions League twice as Milan coach and this time Pioli hopes to fill the boots in question. “Ancelotti has won more competitions in the world with style, intelligence and wisdom. Milan has won everything; you can feel the desire to be one of the main teams and we are doing everything we can to achieve that.”
Pioli was also influenced by another Milan legend, Arrigo Sacchi – his “was a new football, a different football, a more modern one” – whose side he played against while with Verona. That was in 1988 and it was not long after that that he began to realise that coaching was his calling too. “While I was still playing I developed an interest in why and how coaches made choices and I understood that the next step in my career was going to be a coach. My passion made me curious, made me study intensively. And, more importantly, made me create a relationship, forged through respect and harmony, with my players.”
He started in the Bologna youth set-up in 1999 after retiring as a defender, and has since worked with a string of Serie A clubs, including Inter. “I already knew Milan because my daughter studied here, but I didn’t come often and didn’t pay much attention to the city. Now that I live it every day, I appreciate Milan’s modernity. It is the most modern city in Italy in terms of development, economy and opportunities; you can do whatever you like. Milan has a lot to offer.”
It’s also the only city with two European Cup-winning teams. “You feel the tradition and the rivalry. You feel the enormous tension of the derby, but it never goes too far. Obviously, winning it is important, but also because these two teams are getting back to their best.”
The benchmark? “Manchester City, Bayern and Liverpool; teams who play with a style that is easy on the eye – very intense, a lot of quality and with a great desire to attack. When a team has an identity, a soul, everything becomes easier. Football isn’t only about technique: it’s also emotion, having a common goal and putting personal needs aside for the good of the team. The fans recognise that we play with enthusiasm. It’s nice to know they understand our style of play.”
To show their appreciation of the 56-year-old, who took the Rossoneri back into the group stage after a seven-year absence, they sing “Pioli’s on fire” to the tune that made Northern Ireland’s Will Grigg famous at EURO 2016. It’s almost ironic, as the coach’s calm demeanour has led to him being labelled The Normal One. “Being normal is a quality, not a flaw,” says Pioli, who has just signed a new contract taking him through to the end of next season. “If they want to call me that, I don’t mind it,” he adds, delivered with a smile.
“Leaving New York, never easy,” sang R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe. Leaving Rome, the Eternal city, might have been just as complicated for Simone Inzaghi after 22 years as first player then coach at Lazio. But the 45-year-old has landed on his feet at Inter Milan. It helps that after just five months he had already achieved what every other Inter coach in the past decade could not: he has led the 2010 winners into the Champions League knockout stage.
“It was so weird that Inter hadn’t got past the group stage in ten years,” says Inzaghi, who has maintained his predecessor’s 3-5-2 set-up. “I found a team that performed very well in previous years with [Antonio] Conte and this formation. My job has been made easier thanks to the two years the team spent playing with Antonio.”
Inzaghi, though, has added a light touch of his own. “The team has to play freely. You have to allow your players a bit of freedom so they can express themselves better on the pitch. I think they’re doing that.”
It’s an approach to life that he has enjoyed since childhood, playing alongside his elder brother Filippo, three years his senior. “Football has been my life from a very young age. When I was small, I dreamt of becoming a football player. I played with my brother every day. I tried to read the [Gazzetta dello Sport] newspaper even before I started going to school.
“We supported Piacenza, which was later where we started our careers. They were in Serie C at the time and our father took us to the San Siro to watch games. We used to play together in the park, so it was thanks to my brother that I was able to play against children three years older than me. This helped me in the beginning, then throughout my career as a player. Watching him achieve so much has been a big help and source of motivation.”
Simone Inzaghi had a very good career as a striker, including scoring four times for Lazio in a Champions League game against Marseille in 2000. But it’s not comparable to the success of Filippo, a tormentor of European defences for years and twice a European Cup winner with the Rossoneri. As a coach, however, Simone is well ahead of Superpippo, who is at Brescia in Serie B this term. Loved by Lazio fans, who gave him an emotional welcome when Inter played in Rome this season, the younger Inzaghi has stepped out of his comfort zone for this new challenge.
“In my five years at Lazio we always managed to qualify for European competition – and we won three trophies, so it was rewarding. Arriving at Inter was very emotional. I’m at a huge club and we’re on the same path. I was immediately integrated. It’s only been a short time, but it feels like I’ve been here for much longer. There was immediately a good feeling with the team, the club and the supporters. They are our secret weapon. Masses of them always follow us, not just when we play at the San Siro. They really motivate us.”
As for settling in Milan, it’s not been so tough leaving Rome after all. “Whenever I have a little bit of free time I go into the city and I feel the European atmosphere; there are always so many foreigners. It’s a modern city and living my everyday life here is great. Football is always present. Inter and Milan have made history in the past 40 or 50 years… I hope they’ll start to win as much again.”
“Leaving New York, never easy,” sang R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe. Leaving Rome, the Eternal city, might have been just as complicated for Simone Inzaghi after 22 years as first player then coach at Lazio. But the 45-year-old has landed on his feet at Inter Milan. It helps that after just five months he had already achieved what every other Inter coach in the past decade could not: he has led the 2010 winners into the Champions League knockout stage.
“It was so weird that Inter hadn’t got past the group stage in ten years,” says Inzaghi, who has maintained his predecessor’s 3-5-2 set-up. “I found a team that performed very well in previous years with [Antonio] Conte and this formation. My job has been made easier thanks to the two years the team spent playing with Antonio.”
Inzaghi, though, has added a light touch of his own. “The team has to play freely. You have to allow your players a bit of freedom so they can express themselves better on the pitch. I think they’re doing that.”
It’s an approach to life that he has enjoyed since childhood, playing alongside his elder brother Filippo, three years his senior. “Football has been my life from a very young age. When I was small, I dreamt of becoming a football player. I played with my brother every day. I tried to read the [Gazzetta dello Sport] newspaper even before I started going to school.
“We supported Piacenza, which was later where we started our careers. They were in Serie C at the time and our father took us to the San Siro to watch games. We used to play together in the park, so it was thanks to my brother that I was able to play against children three years older than me. This helped me in the beginning, then throughout my career as a player. Watching him achieve so much has been a big help and source of motivation.”
Simone Inzaghi had a very good career as a striker, including scoring four times for Lazio in a Champions League game against Marseille in 2000. But it’s not comparable to the success of Filippo, a tormentor of European defences for years and twice a European Cup winner with the Rossoneri. As a coach, however, Simone is well ahead of Superpippo, who is at Brescia in Serie B this term. Loved by Lazio fans, who gave him an emotional welcome when Inter played in Rome this season, the younger Inzaghi has stepped out of his comfort zone for this new challenge.
“In my five years at Lazio we always managed to qualify for European competition – and we won three trophies, so it was rewarding. Arriving at Inter was very emotional. I’m at a huge club and we’re on the same path. I was immediately integrated. It’s only been a short time, but it feels like I’ve been here for much longer. There was immediately a good feeling with the team, the club and the supporters. They are our secret weapon. Masses of them always follow us, not just when we play at the San Siro. They really motivate us.”
As for settling in Milan, it’s not been so tough leaving Rome after all. “Whenever I have a little bit of free time I go into the city and I feel the European atmosphere; there are always so many foreigners. It’s a modern city and living my everyday life here is great. Football is always present. Inter and Milan have made history in the past 40 or 50 years… I hope they’ll start to win as much again.”
“Leaving New York, never easy,” sang R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe. Leaving Rome, the Eternal city, might have been just as complicated for Simone Inzaghi after 22 years as first player then coach at Lazio. But the 45-year-old has landed on his feet at Inter Milan. It helps that after just five months he had already achieved what every other Inter coach in the past decade could not: he has led the 2010 winners into the Champions League knockout stage.
“It was so weird that Inter hadn’t got past the group stage in ten years,” says Inzaghi, who has maintained his predecessor’s 3-5-2 set-up. “I found a team that performed very well in previous years with [Antonio] Conte and this formation. My job has been made easier thanks to the two years the team spent playing with Antonio.”
Inzaghi, though, has added a light touch of his own. “The team has to play freely. You have to allow your players a bit of freedom so they can express themselves better on the pitch. I think they’re doing that.”
It’s an approach to life that he has enjoyed since childhood, playing alongside his elder brother Filippo, three years his senior. “Football has been my life from a very young age. When I was small, I dreamt of becoming a football player. I played with my brother every day. I tried to read the [Gazzetta dello Sport] newspaper even before I started going to school.
“We supported Piacenza, which was later where we started our careers. They were in Serie C at the time and our father took us to the San Siro to watch games. We used to play together in the park, so it was thanks to my brother that I was able to play against children three years older than me. This helped me in the beginning, then throughout my career as a player. Watching him achieve so much has been a big help and source of motivation.”
Simone Inzaghi had a very good career as a striker, including scoring four times for Lazio in a Champions League game against Marseille in 2000. But it’s not comparable to the success of Filippo, a tormentor of European defences for years and twice a European Cup winner with the Rossoneri. As a coach, however, Simone is well ahead of Superpippo, who is at Brescia in Serie B this term. Loved by Lazio fans, who gave him an emotional welcome when Inter played in Rome this season, the younger Inzaghi has stepped out of his comfort zone for this new challenge.
“In my five years at Lazio we always managed to qualify for European competition – and we won three trophies, so it was rewarding. Arriving at Inter was very emotional. I’m at a huge club and we’re on the same path. I was immediately integrated. It’s only been a short time, but it feels like I’ve been here for much longer. There was immediately a good feeling with the team, the club and the supporters. They are our secret weapon. Masses of them always follow us, not just when we play at the San Siro. They really motivate us.”
As for settling in Milan, it’s not been so tough leaving Rome after all. “Whenever I have a little bit of free time I go into the city and I feel the European atmosphere; there are always so many foreigners. It’s a modern city and living my everyday life here is great. Football is always present. Inter and Milan have made history in the past 40 or 50 years… I hope they’ll start to win as much again.”
Sliding doors. In a different universe, Stefano Pioli might have been delivering the mail and watching Milan in the Champions League on TV instead of directing operations from the touchline.
“My father was a postman and I always admired his protective and confident figure when I was a kid,” he says. “I tried to follow in his footsteps, but football has always been part of my life. I started playing in the yard and then my friends and I joined the neighbourhood team [in Parma]. I was a little bit luckier than them.”
When Pioli was a ball boy in the Parma youth academy, a future Milan coach was starring in midfield. “I was 15 years old and [Carlo] Ancelotti was one of the best players out there. When the first-teamers threw away their boots, we took them and used them, maybe fixing them if there was anything wrong. Those boots were very good.”
Ancelotti won the Champions League twice as Milan coach and this time Pioli hopes to fill the boots in question. “Ancelotti has won more competitions in the world with style, intelligence and wisdom. Milan has won everything; you can feel the desire to be one of the main teams and we are doing everything we can to achieve that.”
Pioli was also influenced by another Milan legend, Arrigo Sacchi – his “was a new football, a different football, a more modern one” – whose side he played against while with Verona. That was in 1988 and it was not long after that that he began to realise that coaching was his calling too. “While I was still playing I developed an interest in why and how coaches made choices and I understood that the next step in my career was going to be a coach. My passion made me curious, made me study intensively. And, more importantly, made me create a relationship, forged through respect and harmony, with my players.”
He started in the Bologna youth set-up in 1999 after retiring as a defender, and has since worked with a string of Serie A clubs, including Inter. “I already knew Milan because my daughter studied here, but I didn’t come often and didn’t pay much attention to the city. Now that I live it every day, I appreciate Milan’s modernity. It is the most modern city in Italy in terms of development, economy and opportunities; you can do whatever you like. Milan has a lot to offer.”
It’s also the only city with two European Cup-winning teams. “You feel the tradition and the rivalry. You feel the enormous tension of the derby, but it never goes too far. Obviously, winning it is important, but also because these two teams are getting back to their best.”
The benchmark? “Manchester City, Bayern and Liverpool; teams who play with a style that is easy on the eye – very intense, a lot of quality and with a great desire to attack. When a team has an identity, a soul, everything becomes easier. Football isn’t only about technique: it’s also emotion, having a common goal and putting personal needs aside for the good of the team. The fans recognise that we play with enthusiasm. It’s nice to know they understand our style of play.”
To show their appreciation of the 56-year-old, who took the Rossoneri back into the group stage after a seven-year absence, they sing “Pioli’s on fire” to the tune that made Northern Ireland’s Will Grigg famous at EURO 2016. It’s almost ironic, as the coach’s calm demeanour has led to him being labelled The Normal One. “Being normal is a quality, not a flaw,” says Pioli, who has just signed a new contract taking him through to the end of next season. “If they want to call me that, I don’t mind it,” he adds, delivered with a smile.
“Leaving New York, never easy,” sang R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe. Leaving Rome, the Eternal city, might have been just as complicated for Simone Inzaghi after 22 years as first player then coach at Lazio. But the 45-year-old has landed on his feet at Inter Milan. It helps that after just five months he had already achieved what every other Inter coach in the past decade could not: he has led the 2010 winners into the Champions League knockout stage.
“It was so weird that Inter hadn’t got past the group stage in ten years,” says Inzaghi, who has maintained his predecessor’s 3-5-2 set-up. “I found a team that performed very well in previous years with [Antonio] Conte and this formation. My job has been made easier thanks to the two years the team spent playing with Antonio.”
Inzaghi, though, has added a light touch of his own. “The team has to play freely. You have to allow your players a bit of freedom so they can express themselves better on the pitch. I think they’re doing that.”
It’s an approach to life that he has enjoyed since childhood, playing alongside his elder brother Filippo, three years his senior. “Football has been my life from a very young age. When I was small, I dreamt of becoming a football player. I played with my brother every day. I tried to read the [Gazzetta dello Sport] newspaper even before I started going to school.
“We supported Piacenza, which was later where we started our careers. They were in Serie C at the time and our father took us to the San Siro to watch games. We used to play together in the park, so it was thanks to my brother that I was able to play against children three years older than me. This helped me in the beginning, then throughout my career as a player. Watching him achieve so much has been a big help and source of motivation.”
Simone Inzaghi had a very good career as a striker, including scoring four times for Lazio in a Champions League game against Marseille in 2000. But it’s not comparable to the success of Filippo, a tormentor of European defences for years and twice a European Cup winner with the Rossoneri. As a coach, however, Simone is well ahead of Superpippo, who is at Brescia in Serie B this term. Loved by Lazio fans, who gave him an emotional welcome when Inter played in Rome this season, the younger Inzaghi has stepped out of his comfort zone for this new challenge.
“In my five years at Lazio we always managed to qualify for European competition – and we won three trophies, so it was rewarding. Arriving at Inter was very emotional. I’m at a huge club and we’re on the same path. I was immediately integrated. It’s only been a short time, but it feels like I’ve been here for much longer. There was immediately a good feeling with the team, the club and the supporters. They are our secret weapon. Masses of them always follow us, not just when we play at the San Siro. They really motivate us.”
As for settling in Milan, it’s not been so tough leaving Rome after all. “Whenever I have a little bit of free time I go into the city and I feel the European atmosphere; there are always so many foreigners. It’s a modern city and living my everyday life here is great. Football is always present. Inter and Milan have made history in the past 40 or 50 years… I hope they’ll start to win as much again.”
