Interview with Alessandro Ramello, responsible for Youth Training

“We are looking for a wider and wider range of activities so as to not create boredom: motivation is one of the most important entities” Alessandro Ramello states. He is the Head of Rossoblù Youth Activities who, given the suspension of training, is working together with the coaches from the Under 14s to the Under 9s in order to continue the development of our 130 boys.

How will you continue over these coming weeks, from a training point of view? How will you keep in touch with the boys?

“For the moment, training is suspended until the end of November, so together with the coaches we are putting together some technical and organisational meetings in order to improve our work and our methodology. We’re also studying other professional European clubs to understand how they work.

As for the categories of older players, we have sent them maintenance programs developed by our Performance Area, thanks to which the boys can continue to take care of their fitness levels. The coaches organise these meetings multiple times per week depending on the age group. We use online meetings through Zoom in which we try to develop technical growth in all our players; at the moment we’re looking at ball control and dribbling”.

So compared to last spring, exercise will now be able to take place outside of their own homes?

“That’s right, the boys can safely go to their backyard or the park with a mobile phone or tablet so they’re not breaking chandeliers by doing exercises indoor. However, we are looking to improve their ball control, both static and dynamic movement, direction changes and dribbling”.

On the field, how have the coaches acted and how had the boys responded in turn?

“We started the season, and everyone was motivated to develop and learn, having spent so long away from the pitches; when we started their responses were very good. In my opinion, during these first two months we did a great job and our players have grown a lot. The situation with Covid-19 is not wanted since we were doing such a great job. We hope to be able to start as soon as possible again, since the Under 13 and 14 teams were doing so well in their respective leagues”.

You have been here at the club for two years since you arrived: what steps forward have been made with regard to the departments you coordinate?

“In the first year there has been great development: we have built teams that are becoming more and more competitive and full of high-quality players. We were continuing our training schedule, then the virus came along and stunted our progress. We will try to make up for lost time over the coming months. In my opinion, the Youth Activity department has grown a lot and the boys who join are ready to face the national leagues. I’d like to thank our coaches and the scouting department. My job is to coordinate a group that is pursuing a path that can lead to a constant growth in training”.