In Lecce, Pantaleo Corvino has closed a circle that began 20 years ago. Now the new

In the celebrations immediately following the victory of the Primavera championship, one of the first dedications of the president of Lecce, Saverio Sticchi Damiani, went to the sporting director of the Giallorossi, Pantaleo Corvino. Sticchi Damiani specified how much Corvino wanted to achieve such a result, at the culmination of a three-year project that began upon his return to Salento in 2020. On the triumphal night in Reggio Emilia, however, Corvino was not present to celebrate with his team, so as it was not in Monza on the day of the prodigious salvation obtained on the gong: for many years now Corvino has very little attendance at the stadium, he claims following a Fiorentina-Turin match that put his coronaries to the test. Vernole’s manager is one of those rare personalities who manages to make his absence weigh and give meaning to his presence: in the national title achieved with Hasic’s goal in the 119th minute, as well as in the masterpiece salvation achieved with the lowest wage bill in the Serie A, his signature is evident.

Corvino is renowned for his skills as a talent scout, which for over twenty years have made him one of the cult Italian sports directors: it is difficult to say more about this, about his ability to find talent. He is keen to specify that he is not a xenophile, but that he aims to do his best with the budgets at his disposal, which often lead him to discover, “to travel, take trains and planes” as he said in the press conference at the end of season in which he removed more than a few pebbles from his shoe. It is certainly a quality that he has managed to renew over the years: if before his favorite hunting ground was Eastern Europe, today, with the exception of the Romanian colony (4 columns of the Primavera come from there, including the top scorer Burnete and the midfielder Vulturar), raised his sights towards the North: a large Scandinavian front has formed at Lecce, thanks also to the advice of Fabrizio Bertuzzi, an expert in Nordic football discovered by Corvino in his time in Florence and brought with him to Bologna and Lecce. On the Italian territory, however, the shadow of him is Stefano Trinchera: a lot of apprenticeship in the minor categories, between Virtus Francavilla (where he discovered Nzola), Cosenza (three consecutive saves in B with a limited budget) and the very first Lecce of Sticchi Damiani. It is he who monitors the minor leagues, looking for other hits such as Bashkir, a profile that perfectly represents the bucolic and humble soul of this Lecce. Corvino has elected him his heir and is following him in the succession process.

At this stage of the career, Corvino has assumed the role of supervisor: he observes everything, coordinates the various components, keeps a close eye. He is known as a talent scout, we were saying, but his qualities as a manager are often underestimated: he has the security of someone who believes in his own decisions and wants to make them grow in the right environment. In the season that culminated in his salvation, he could have replaced Baroni on more than one occasion: it often happens to newly promoted teams, who sin of inexperience and replace the promotion coach. Corvino didn’t fall into the trap: he gave his coach confidence, even in the most delicate moments. He gave him responsibility, a key concept for Corvino in building his teams, especially with the coaches. When, in 1999, he chose Cavasin to lead Lecce in Serie A (at the time the coach from Treviso was a rookie in the category) he left him alone for the entire time of his retirement, meanwhile going around trying to close negotiations. Cavasin, legitimized by this investiture, found himself managing various difficult situations with his players, which made him grow as a coach: Corvino remained close to him all the time for the telephone confrontation, but it was up to him to take the group head on .

This Lecce has flourished under the same assumptions: Corvino won his big bet, that is to see Baroni beyond the role of “category” coach that he had carved out over the years. He was able to offer him the right dimension, on which the Florentine coach was good at never drowning. The Salento season, paradoxically, was born in the wake of several market disappointments collected last summer: the non-signing of Normann due to a bureaucratic catch regarding the Russian-Ukrainian conflict; the arrival of Ferguson, which vanished at the last minute in favor of Bologna; the dry refusal of Maksimovic. From each of these blows, Corvino has been able to remedy in various ways: the masterpiece Umtiti, who arrived in skepticism and left in tears after a season as a defensive column, is proof of this, the remarkable growth of captain Hjulmand, a Danish squire of Salento adoption projected towards great football, and the discovery of Joan Gonzalez, box-to-box Barcelona school of which we have not yet seen the best. All, in their own way, challenges that Corvino has won: with a touch of pride, he sees some players as personal revenge (among many, he often recalls the relaunch of Cristiano Lucarelli, who hadn’t played for two years and “ate meatballs and pasticciotti” ).

Beyond the names, the commendable game (a 4-3-3 with a marked verticality, too often ticked up front but solid defensively), Lecce has surprised this season for the maturity shown by the whole environment: never a draft, never controversies or out of place episodes to upset the environment. A salvation that the team has conquered by going through the protests of the fans, more or less legitimate, which often targeted Corvino himself: he did not budge an inch. “The bear”, as those who know him have defined him, with his experience he has compacted a young group, the youngest in the championship with an average age of 24.5 years. With this year’s results, Corvino has closed a circle that has been open for twenty years: the 16th place finish is Lecce’s best finish since the 2004/2005 season, Pantaleo’s last in Salento before taking off between Florence and Bologna. And, with the victory of the Spring Championship, he brought back the maximum national youth result 19 years after the last time: from the feat of Fano to that of Reggio Emilia, from Rizzo’s Lecce with Pellé, Rosati and Vucinic to that of Coppitelli, who already promises to supply the team for next season (together with the aforementioned Vulturar and Burnete, the star of Dorgu, left-handed lightning bolt, and midfielder Samek shines, just to name two).

Is it the swan song for Corvinus? Definitely not, on the contrary: the yellow and red plenipotentiary has taken a liking to this experience and would like to relaunch the stakes, to start again from a new three-year project, upon completion of the exhausted one. The network created in recent years has allowed Lecce to enter the good living rooms of football: the channel opened with Barcelona, ​​thanks to the agent Arturo Canales, could prove to be a fundamental resource in the coming years; next season’s Youth League is a unique opportunity to put down roots in international football and make yourself known. Corvino took Lecce and brought it back to great football, but he didn’t just do this: he is leaving a legacy that will remain even after him. The first step for the upcoming season was yet another courageous choice: Roberto D’Aversa comes from two disappointing experiences (Sampdoria and Parma volume 2), but between Lanciano and his first experience in Parma he launched players like Conti, Bastoni and Kulusevski. Corvino, against the tide as usual, trusts him. His best projects were born on these assumptions.