Fabio Capello at the Trento Sports Festival: reflections on football, young people and careers

We no longer know how to defend. The defensive phase is given little attention. I have not yet seen in this national team the anger to recover the ball. I love the national team madly; even at home I stand up for the anthem but I don't regret not having trained it.

With Gianni Valenti, deputy editor of the Gazzetta and scientific director of the Trento Sports Festival, Fabio Capello retraced his career: as a player four championships and his experience in the national team, as a coach five championships and a Champions Cup between Milan and Rome, his experience in Madrid and his experience as technical commissioner, his experiences in England, Russia and China.

The coaches have little courage in letting young people play, who should be tested to evaluate them. The kids must be able to show their qualities and instead foreigners are given more opportunities. In terms of the game, the focus is on ball possession and the players are discouraged from daring and verticalizing. I would like to see Italian football return to what it was and what made us proud. Today I don't have so much confidence, I don't have the humility to understand where to go all together.

Finally, with the meeting formally closed, Capello started speaking again because, he explained, "I really have to say this: let the young people have fun playing football. I coached the youth sectors for five years. At the beginning of the football year I gathered the parents and said: I don't want to hear you shouting at the referee, opponents or others. If that happens, your son won't play."

At the Trento Sports Festival, "don" Fabio Capello, who turned 80 last June, opened his personal drawer of memories. The most moved was for Franco Baresi: "Very humble and very good. He remains in the memory as a player, but above all what remains is the authenticity of a man who gave everything on the pitch and was also generous off it. He was a spark; when the team fell asleep, he woke up the team and the public."

And then an episode that still burns: the final in Belgrade with Ajax. "I saw Cruyff throw the Cup contemptuously in the corridor of the bus. I suffered a lot." The Friulian coach retraced his beginnings: "One day, leaving school, I found my father, a primary school teacher. He told me: 'If you want to try to be a footballer, go ahead, but you will have to write us two letters every week'. Then at the station, just before I left, he hugged me and said 'try it'. For me it was a mental turning point: from then on my life was characterized by that 'try it'."

And football today? "Technique should be taught but instead we focus on tactics, because it's easier, but young people need to be shown the athletic gesture. I was lucky enough to technically correct Ibrahimović, Van Basten and Seedorf. Today football is faster but technically we are behind", says Capello.