{"id":292211,"date":"2023-09-23T22:34:13","date_gmt":"2023-09-23T22:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/?p=292211"},"modified":"2023-09-23T22:34:13","modified_gmt":"2023-09-23T22:34:13","slug":"roberto-de-zerbi-the-manager-obsessed-with-football-and-cigarettes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/soccer\/roberto-de-zerbi-the-manager-obsessed-with-football-and-cigarettes\/","title":{"rendered":"Roberto De Zerbi: the manager obsessed with &apos;football and cigarettes&apos;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Roberto de Zerbi was the outstanding candidate to replace Graham Potter at Brighton and is obsessed with &#8216;football and cigarettes&#8217;&#8230; now the Seagulls are reaping the rewards of his genius<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Roberto De Zerbi is a meticulous and popular coach who fits Brighton perfectly<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>When club officials met him, they knew he had to be their No 1 managerial target<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Mail Sport&#8217;s Nick Harris spent a week with Brighton to find out how they operate<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Roberto De Zerbi is brilliant on detail. Everyone at the club says he loads his players with information. He\u2019s a friendly guy who bonds easily, whether with a barber called Mehmet who cuts hair in a shop near his apartment and with whom he regularly has coffee, or with staff, with whom he\u2019s popular.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s fiery at times, and can explode in frustration, but calms quickly. De Zerbi is a family man, with a daughter at university in London, a wife, Elisa, in Italy, who travels to see him, and vice versa, and a son, also in Italy.<\/p>\n<p>The description most commonly cited for the 44-year-old, who had a playing career that included Napoli and managerial jobs across Italy before Shakhtar Donetsk, is that he is \u2018obsessed\u2019 with football.<\/p>\n<p>After his pre-match press conference ahead of the AEK Athens game, I sit down with him in a side room and tell him everyone says he\u2019s obsessed. He nods.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Football,\u2019 he replies. \u2018And cigarettes.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/23\/21\/75766609-12553339-image-a-68_1695502325056.jpg\" height=\"451\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Roberto De Zerbi is a football obsessive and can watch football all night, while also being a family man with a wife, daughter, and son<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/23\/21\/75766535-12553339-image-m-65_1695499792310.jpg\" height=\"288\" width=\"306\"><\/p>\n<p>He adds: \u2018I think I\u2019m really lucky in life because my work is my passion. I\u2019m enjoying working. The people who work inside of football have a big salary, and for it I consider myself very lucky.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The previous evening he went home from work and \u2026 watched football all night. Champions League games.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Football is a hobby, work, passion, it\u2019s my life. The problem is when there aren\u2019t any games. I love to spend my time with my assistant watching the Champions League, and for us it\u2019s an honour playing in the Europa League this season because if you live for football and can play in the middle of the week, it\u2019s an honour, a pleasure.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>So the international break was quite difficult for you then? \u2018Yes!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Club sources say Bloom personally identified De Zerbi as Graham Potter\u2019s successor, using data produced by StarLizard. Paul Barber confirms to me De Zerbi was on a shortlist of three but as soon as they met him, he became the only candidate they wanted, the head-and-shoulders No1, and the only one they courted.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I knew about Brighton because I watched a lot of Premier League games,\u2019 De Zerbi says. \u2018We had a meeting in London with Tony Bloom and with Paul Barber and David Weir and they explained to me their philosophy, their idea, their plan.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018They were very close to my ideas. I always thought I had to decide the best place, the best club for me . . . but not for the money or the level of competition but for the ideas and the style of work.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Working with young players is a good thing for me.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/23\/20\/75766685-0-image-a-59_1695498613369.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Club sources say chairman and majority owner Tony Bloom personally identified De Zerbi using data produced by StarLizard\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/23\/20\/75766939-0-image-a-60_1695498718160.jpg\" height=\"455\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Brighton appealed to the Italian manager because he likes working with young players<\/p>\n<p>De Zerbi said on Tuesday he is living the dream. \u2018I finished in Ukraine in a bad way, you know which way [because of the war]. And then when I started to work here it was very difficult, no? For me as a foreign coach in a new country with new players and the last coach left for a big club.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018But it\u2019s been like a dream \u2014 style of play, the relationship with the players, with the club, the people who work inside, the results. I like living in Brighton.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>I tell De Zerbi that his name is cited in the same conversations on contemporary coaching innovators as Pep Guardiola. The two are friends. \u2018It\u2019s a madness that my name is [associated] with Guardiola,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I think I\u2019m a good coach. I\u2019m able to be a coach but sincerely I don\u2019t think I\u2019m changing anything. I\u2019m keeping my ideas, I\u2019m transferring my ideas to our players, and they are very good.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/23\/21\/75767169-12553339-image-a-66_1695499882350.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>De Zerbi is friends with Pep Guardiola and says it is a &#8216;madness&#8217; that the two are compared<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I know the importance of a coach, because I was a player, but the players are more important than the coaches. You can have the best idea but if you don\u2019t have the right players to show your idea, it\u2019s impossible.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Guardiola is on another level. For me, he\u2019s the best. I want to improve my ideas. My improvement is not finished yet and I don\u2019t want it to finish!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12553339\/Roberto-Zerbi-outstanding-candidate-replace-Graham-Potter-Brighton-obsessed-football-cigarettes-Seagulls-reaping-rewards-genius.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Roberto de Zerbi was the outstanding candidate to replace Graham Potter at Brighton and is obsessed with &#8216;football and cigarettes&#8217;&#8230; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Roberto De Zerbi: the manager obsessed with &amp;apos;football and cigarettes&amp;apos; 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