From Spring to a summer of rebirth: interview with Mr. Massimo Zoni

Appetite comes… training. For the new rossoblù leader Massimo Zoni, baptism in the world of women's football is to all intents and purposes a matter closely linked to the sports ecosystem of Permac. After over twenty years of experience in the male field, started in the youth sector of the U.S. San Quirino and culminated in the successful four-year period at Calcio Aviano – where he coached Giovanissimi, Students and Juniors, winning 3 Discipline Cup and contributing to the historic promotion of the First Team in the First Category – the coach Pordenone was the protagonist of an excellent debut season on the bench of the junior Red Blue, effectively earning the promotion for this year to technical manager of the victorious First Team.

After almost a month of hard preparation in the field of Costa together with his "new" Tose, we hear impressions and goals from the coach just over a week after first official season in the Italian Cup against Le Torri.

Until the infamous lockdown last March, the Juniors was achieving a very good series of results, in a particularly difficult league like the national one. What memories do you have of last season?
I can only keep excellent memories of the very particular vintage spent, all the more so since it is my first approach to a completely female team. Already with the youngest I felt great right from the start, finding in the girls immense availability for work and sacrifice, higher than that profuse by boys. As for the championship, we started slowly also because we were catapulted to the last – following the repechage in B of the First Team, ed – in a national competition against well-equipped and high-level teams. After the necessary adaptation we were still able to find the right place and we were taking away our satisfactions. A great pity the growth process has been interrupted by everything that we have unfortunately learned about.

How are you living, in these first few weeks, the passage to the guide of the Tose, that is your first assignment ever at the helm of a women's First Team?
In the "Seniors" I tested even more, right now, maximum willingness to put themselves at the service of the group and the team, as well as the immense desire to start playing and experiencing the normality of sport again. At the beginning, with my staff, we even found ourselves having to curb this almost impetuous yearning on the part of the girls: on the other hand, after all these months of inactivity, we must be particularly careful of injuries, also in relation to the size of the squad. We are working a lot, five days a week for almost a month to dilute the workloads, Unfortunately, however, we find it difficult to organize friendlies due to the rigorous anti-Covid protocols, that we must and want to respect with the utmost attention. We lack the comparisons on the pitch to understand our level and that of our opponents, so we will have to adapt very quickly to the level of the championship and of our opponents this season.

This year's team will be made up of many elements from Cantera, flanked by some senators who have chosen to continue marrying the rossoblù project.
Both the younger and the more experienced girls are doing everything to make a group, both in large and in the smallest and most convivial occasions. The most navigated remained to help us grow, the less experienced they want to show off and show that they can be in the First Team. On the part of all there is a desire to acquire mentality and always give the 110%: we must therefore set ourselves defined goals and to achieve them we must do them better than others.

What do you ultimately expect from this team and this championship ? 
We have to be good at building a healthy work group, strong and serious to achieve important results. I spoke clearly with the company, it is an honor and a pride to coach a team that can boast a forty-year history and I do not want to limit myself to this season's goals. We are aware that we are an inexperienced team and our minimum goal must be salvation, but when we talk about it in the locker room the same girls don't fit in and definitely want to raise the bar. The results come from hard work, and hard work always pays off, we will see where we can get, surely we will have respect for everyone but fear of no one.

What do you expect on a personal level from the entire seasonal journey 2020-2021?
The one at the helm of the rossoblù First Team certainly represents for me a very important opportunity for growth from a technical and human point of view. Experience is certainly not a secondary factor and I too will need some time to fully understand certain mechanisms. Regardless of everything, we can't wait to leave and demonstrate what we are and what we can become .