Spain launches youth players, this is the difference |
 By Roberto De Ponti "The difference is elementary. Applies to basketball, but also to football. In Italy, when it comes to youth sectors, the main question is: how many championships have we won? In Spain, however, the question is: how many players have entered the senior team this year? And the end results are evident." Sergio Scariolo, 49 years old from Brescia, Aries, has a privileged point of view, coach of the Spanish national team, actual European Champions, getting ready to fight for the World Championship as well. Difficult task, but not impossible. More or less the same position as footbal’s Red Furies, European title in their pocket, World Champion’s title around the corner with Paraguay, Argentina, Germany and Brazil. Extremely difficult but not impossible. Simultaneously, we contemplate our miseries. In football, where Marcello Lippi has left reminding that there were no stars forgotten at home from South Africa, and that the lit match can now pass to the hands of Cesare Prandelli, from yesterday officially new coach of “Azzurri”. And in basketball, where the new coach Simone Piangiani has immediately tried to motivate the team, my boys have the fire inside, but without forgetting how difficult the task of bringing Italian basketball back is, by now relegated to the borders of the Empire. Matter of bad planning, Scariolo? "Well, maybe it's just a moment, like a coincidence of events. It happened that the talents of this generation were born in Spain and not in Italy...». Just a coincidence? The Spanish national teams win in football and basketball, the Spanish clubs win in football and basketball, and if it were not for Inter, which has almost no Italian players, for our team sports it would be a total disaster. In addition, FC Barcelona is full of Catalans and Real Madrid itself has got several Spanish players in their roster. Just a coincidence? "No, actually. Indeed, Spain has grown a lot. Before it was traditionally more focused on evaluating appearance, touch, possession of the ball. Then they learned to work on the mindset and tactics. The result is that they have learned how to win without betraying their identity by combining the results to the quality of the game. " That seems so simple ... "And it is. In Spain, youth teams work more on the growth of the players than on winning games, then at the end you realise that two, three, four players have made it to the senior team, and not just to complete the roster. I speak for basketball, but football is the same: the “cantera” of FC Barcelona is the most obvious example. " In Italy instead? "I can not evaluate what's happening in Italy with youth sector, but one thing is certain: if you work just to win, then you are not working well to grow the champions of the future." The immediate future. The average age of the two Spanish national teams, football and basketball, is very young. And they are full of talent. "I speak of course for basketball, even though they tell me that in football it is the same: all the players I coach, and I mean all, have a tremendous dedication to the national team, and they are all normal guys, whose behaviour never affects the team. And that contagious enthusiasm influences the newer generations, as a chain reaction. An example: Pau Gasol. He just won the NBA title, as a leader, and for the first time has asked for some time off from the national team. Well, he has done it at the age of 30, not 22. " Danilo Gallinari, New York Knicks’ starlet on vacation, will ask himself some questions. "To be honest, when I coached in Italy I didn’t feel there was this great affection towards the national team’s uniform...». Result: "At technical level between Spain and Italy there is an enormous gap, and I don’t see signs of it being filled at least in the short term. The difference, of course, is elementary. |
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