«Many no from clubs, but we want the World Cup»- Corriere.it

our best youth. Who dreams big, indeed very big. They are the boys of the Italy Under 20, who are hunting for a historic World Cup final in Argentina: on Thursday 8 June at 11pm (Rai2) they will face South Korea in the semifinals. Coach Carmine Nino Nunziata, former Inter midfielder, Turin , Padua and Brescia, there are no limits: Now that we’ve come this far, we don’t have to try: we have to believe in it.

Yet it hadn’t started well: many teams didn’t give her players.
Being the Under 20 World Cup on different dates from the Fifa calendar for the national teams, I expected it. But I must say that I didn’t think of so many no’s. The younger ones are good at integrating right away: Pisilli, Faticanti, Lipani, Esposito,

Pafundi

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In fact, you are now two steps away from a title that we have never won. The secret?

Not one but three: being a team, having a game and running with intensity, because in the international arena without intensity you don’t even start.

A fourth secret is the technical quality of the players. In Italy we don’t dribble anymore: you, on the other hand, seem to enjoy yourself, ball and chain.

We are organized like this: in the non-possession phase, that is to say when the other players have the ball, everyone has to run and press. None excluded. Then, when we attack, in the last thirty meters the boys know they have to follow their instincts, their imagination. a simple rule. And the kids got it.

Koreans, both those from the north and those from the south, always bring up bad football memories: 1966, 2002…

Not a team that impresses you, like England or Colombia. This is the main problem. a square team, with a good average quality, plus a couple of excellent players, such as the centre-forward. It will be tough. But above all the athletic condition will be decisive: we are in the sixth game, it is played every three days. Whoever is more lucid wins.

The Empoli star Baldanzi is one of the market men of the summer. What suggestion did he give him?

The same one I gave everyone: have fun, play with a smile, because you’re lucky. Baldanzi, specifically, doesn’t need much advice: he has his head on his shoulders.

In Serie A, young people have no space, there is little trust. Is yours a message? As if to say: look what we can do?

Italian footballers mature more slowly than foreigners, the delay being around a couple of years. The fault of the lack of employment: the Primavera is not enough, you grow up only by playing with the greats. There is more trust abroad. It’s also up to us Italian coaches to change our mentality.

Is the oratory a bit missing, too?

Yes, but a speech that does not fully convince me. Times change, today there are more distractions, more possibilities. Once upon a time we only had football. Maybe it’s not true that today it’s worse. It is, of course, for football. But not absolutely. It’s up to the system, the coaches, the managers, to find a way to help little players grow technically and above all in character.

Of the 21 players called up, they are all class 2003 minus 6: Pafundi, Udinese starlet in 2006, the two 2005 Esposito (Inter) and Lipani (Genoa) and the three 2004 Faticanti (Roma), Pisilli (Roma) and Guarino (Empoli) . Looks like a high school class. Feeling a bit like a visiting professor?

They are young guys, we are in Argentina, far from home, for many the first time. They play and joke, and it’s beautiful like this. The splendid atmosphere. Sure, Filippini, Ferron, Azzone and Mannucci give me a hand, plus the FIGC staff. We are a good group. We all want victory. We don’t try: we believe in it.