MILAN – Velasco scores a point. To the usual narrative of the general press that he sees in Egonu and Antropova not an asset of the women’s national team but a reason for dualism to be used in headlines.
Of course it is a comparison that is easy even for us specialized media, but it cannot be a reason for obsession or reduction to just one against the other. In an Olympic key, the opponents are others, Vargas, Boskovic, Thompson and a thousand others.
Julio Velasco therefore doesn’t fit. On the occasion of the day of “The Sports Sheet” at San Siro, the Italian coach revealed the intentions of the national women’s volleyball team which is seeking a pass to the Olympics in the next VNL in Antalya: Among certainties (“We will be there in Paris 2024, the quarterfinals will be the crossroads between success and failure”) and clarifications (“I will never talk about the Egonu-Antropova dualism, the team counts”), the Argentine coach compares Egonu to Totti and Maradona: “But only camp no privileges.”
This is the interview with Alberto Brandi for Sportmediaset.
Julio Velasco, the VNL is scheduled for mid-May, which has become a gateway to the Olympics for the national women’s volleyball team that you coach. Will we get there in Paris 2024?
“I think we’re getting there, I know from CONI president Malagò that there are many expectations. It’s not the first time I’ve coached the women’s national team: I like to remember that in ’97, after finishing the men’s cycle with the silver in Atlanta 96, I accepted the challenge with the women. Everyone told me that what had been done with men was impossible to replicate. I only stayed for a year, but the staff I left then qualified for the Olympics for the first time, won a World Cup with Bonitta and so on. Now the situation is different, the women’s movement has grown a lot with great players, an excellent organization and it is right that we ask for a medal.”
Let’s try to imagine the qualification, what will be our main obstacle? “There is a match that is the most stressful for the favored teams: the quarter-final because you can meet a team that has everything to lose and that has less pressure than one that has everything to win. It’s the crossroads between failure and glory.”
Will your main role be to pacify a dressing room that will find players who had been set aside by your predecessor Mazzanti starting with Paola Egonu? “I’m not aware of any rifts in the locker room. I think that a cycle was over and in this situation the conflicts increase dramatically. It’s something that doesn’t worry me. The opponents, Brazil, Serbia and Turkey, scare me the most. What I say publicly is that anyone who thinks that the only problem could have been the coach is wrong. There are many things to change. And I’m usually the one who changes things…”.
Let’s talk about Egonu. You have always said that players are not all the same. Could Paola have a different treatment? “No one is the same as another. There are no privileges for this, but yes, there are differences. As may have happened with Totti, Platini or Maradona, Egonu cannot be expected to live the same life as her teammates, between attention, agents, sponsors and everything that goes around. But no favoritism, when it’s time to train and play there everyone has to give their best. Off the field… freedom must be granted, important athletes are characters like they have never been in the past. It is important that in managing these great figures we are not afraid. The leader must not have fears.”
So Egonu like Totti, Platini and Maradona? “She’s a very strong player and she’s an icon. This is a phenomenon that must be taken into account. Even from her companions. But it cannot be used beyond what it already is. If Egonu plays worse than a teammate, she doesn’t play. And whoever makes this decision should not be afraid.”
Inevitably we arrive at Antropova, Scandicci’s 2003 opposite who competes for the starting position with Egonu. “We are going down a bad road. I refuse to reduce everything to the Egonu-Antropova dualism. I won’t go around names. You in the press will do this, I respect your work, but I am clear from the start: I will never respond on the topic. We are the female Italy. Point. We are a team, we must talk about a group that must achieve great results. All our thoughts must be on winning without thinking about anything else.”
