by Michael Cuomo
Sipping a coffee is the best way to start a day. For Alessandro Nesta the lightest way to get in touch with Monza, after having lived as a footballer for a decade in nearby Milan. The return to these parts is the work of the same person who more than twenty years ago, working alongside the president, managed to snatch him from Lazio, guaranteeing that Milan could secure their defense with one of the best central defenders in the history of football.
Adriano Galliani, in this return, wanted to give an extra romantic note, as he usually does especially since the strings of his heart have intertwined the colors of his life again: the white and red of Monza. This time there wasn’t the vibration of the Milanese tram to make the wait even more anxious, as when in 2002 Nesta looked out from the luxurious terrace of the Hotel Gallia, but a handshake in Brianza that arrives on the day that has become one of the most significant for the entire club, which therefore rightfully entered the history of Brianza: that of naming the sports center after Silvio Berlusconi and his father Luigi, to whom it had already been dedicated a couple of years ago. It is there that the eyes of the CEO – who entered his fiftieth season as sports manager – shone on Monday afternoon with the same ambition as always, and it is there that on a daily basis, in less than a month, the new coach will begin to cultivate ambitions and dreams as he would have wanted the president.
“I only remind a few skeptics, but they are few, that Arrigo Sacchi, Silvio Berlusconi’s first coach, had never coached in Serie A, and that Raffaele Palladino, our last coach, had never coached in Serie A. Since there ‘there is a saying that says “there are no twos without threes”, I wish Alessandro Nesta to have the same good fortune and the same abilities as Sacchi and Palladino”. Responsibilities increase when Adriano Galliani presents you like this at an open microphone, in front of cameras and notebooks, but above all to corporate officials and a representation of fans. But Sandro knows how to accept and above all face responsibilities: on the pitch he put his body into duels, then he always understood when it was the right moment to risk the tackle. Which translated on the bench will have to combine an innovation that will have to move from technical-tactical issues to the human and motivational aspect which in recent years has acted as an additional element for the achievement of great results in the first two top flight championships in history red and white. A bit like he did in his last year at Reggiana, stimulating a young team to the point of tickling the playoff dream, but even before that at Frosinone, arriving at the Picco against Vincenzo Italiano’s Spezia, coming out not without regrets from a double final that rewarded the the current coach of Bologna.
“I can’t wait to put my passion and dedication to work at the service of this company”, are Nesta’s first words. This wait will pass quickly. As twenty years have already passed since that time, she now seems closer because “some loves don’t end”. This love, by contract, will last a maximum of two years. But this love, with these ambitions, will want to last as long as possible.
