“As a coach you have to know even the favorite dish of your players”

Sergio ConceicaoPorto’s coach from 2017 until last summer, earned a reputation for knowing how to straighten out the talent of promising players who arrived at the Portuguese team with a heavy hand. It happened to the midfielder Nico Gonzalezarrived from Barça in the summer of 2023 and had minutes until January 2024, when he took the direction his coach wanted and became a permanent fixture. He is proud of his method, which is not always understood, this Thursday at the Casina Poste in Rome on the occasion of the presentation of the 25 finalists for the Golden Boy, with the Barça player Lamine Yamal as a favorite without discussion.

Invited as a youth trainer, Sergio Conceicao He was asked during the conversation of the event, as the chief guest, about the evolution of footballers who came into his hands at a young age. And his explanation was not wasted.

“Working at the highest level means having to work hard, in aspects that may not be technical, to succeed. The youth must understand what is the right way to be in modern football, what you do outside field is important,” he said. , boasting of his control over most novices.

“As the coach of Porto, I often watched the U-17, the U-19, the reserve team, and we ended up training players for the national team, not to mention those who came from other continents and we had to explain it’s theirs. football is different in Europe For example, I know everything about my players, even their favorite dish, having all these details makes a difference how much they sleep, how much they don’t sleep, if what they eat, what family they have … You have to be demanding with yourself, rigorous “It’s a lot of work that you don’t see. You have to have passion, it’s the only thing that makes you accept all the sacrifices,” he concluded.