At the 2016 European Football Championship, information became known that the famous Italian coach Antonio Conte is finishing his work in the national team, and after the end of the tournament he leaves his post. Conte is leaving for England, where he will be coached by London-based Chelsea, and his place as coach of the Italian national team will be taken by 68-year-old Giampiero Ventura, who had previously trained Torino.
Biography of the new Italian coach
Ventura was born in Genoa on January 14, 1948. The career of a football player ended very early, as Giampiero Ventura received a very serious back injury and was no longer able to go on the field. But he could not completely abandon football. The first team that he brought to the field as a mentor was his native Sampdoria (youth team).
After 3 years, Ventura became an assistant coach of the main team, and after two more began his independent coaching career. He worked in such clubs as Intel, Udinese, Napoli. Coach Giampiero Ventura for a long time did not stay in any of the clubs, but thanks to his leadership, many of them went to higher divisions.
Ventura joined Torino in 2011 and worked there until his appointment as head coach of the Italian national team.
National team
The fact of being appointed head coach of the Italian national team Giampiero Ventura caused a mixed reaction in the media. Indeed, behind this coach there is no work in the famous clubs of the top division, and he never coached the national team.
But the Italian football coach Ventura knows how to be not only a good coach, but also a teacher, whom all players who have played under his leadership at least once speak well of. His motto, which he invented for his “Torino”: “If we want, we can” - more than once raised the morale of the players and became the leitmotif of the entire coaching career of Giampiero Ventura.
He loves his work very much, and in each team that he coached, he managed to create a unique friendly atmosphere where players stand up to each other with a mountain and support the coach in everything.
What is the secret of Ventura?
Giampiero Ventura is one of the few coaches who knows everything about his wards and helps them climb to the very top of the world football ranking. For example, the famous Italian defender Leonardo Bonucci, he almost led by the hand to training, when he played for Bari.
This coach knows how to find an individual approach to each of his players, and many of the players had the best matches in their career under the supervision of Ventura. The basis of his methodology is, first of all, study. He who thinks he already knows everything never lingers on his team for a long time. A vivid example is Juan Sanchez Migno, who had not lost at Torino for half a year and was forced to return to South America.
Ventura is not afraid to bet on young players, thereby giving a chance to reach their potential as early as possible. “Torino” under his leadership became the team from which came a lot of talented youth who play in the best European clubs.
2018 World Cup Plans
Already at the first training camp, which took place in Querciano, Ventura called a lot of young players who are under 20 years old. One of these candidates for the national team was the young goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who recently turned 17 years old.
The Italian national football team is noticeably younger, and now the coach’s task is not to lower the bar that the team has held over the past 10 years.
If we compare Giampiero Ventura with his predecessor Antonio Conte, then, at first glance, the comparison is not in favor of an age coach. Indeed, under the leadership of Conte, the Italian team reached the highest positions in world football, and Giampiero Ventura calmly coached and educated players from a not-so-famous team. But Ventura has the qualities that perhaps the most famous trainers in Europe do not have. He is aimed at work, his goal in life was and is football, and he devotes all his strength to achieve his goal.
Another point that helps Ventura achieve the result is that he knows how to return the players to faith in success, even after a devastating loss. And this is exactly what Italy needs after a terrible penalty shootout at the last European championship.
Personal life is not a hindrance
It should be noted that Giampiero Ventura always had a weakness for women who are much younger than him, and never hid it. Most recently, he married the 40-year-old Lucian. The wedding ceremony took place a week before his official appointment as head coach of the Italian national team.
But it is unlikely that personal life will interfere with Ventura in his coaching. Work has always been an integral part of his life for him, and in the seventh decade it is unlikely that anything will change.
The World Cup qualifying match, which the Italians won against the Israeli national team, showed that the atmosphere in the team is all right, and the Italians are seriously focused on the highest places of the upcoming tournament.