Chivu: "I want to create something lasting at Inter. There is no money or idea that can guarantee winning the Champions League. I did not celebrate after the Treble. Pio Esposito showed courage"

Inter manager Cristian Chivu revealed an unusually personal side, speaking more about his emotional state and his work as a coach than the events he is involved in on the pitch.

Former defender turned coach, he reflected on many parts of his life, first as a player, then as a coach of young boys, and now as manager of a club like Inter, sharing anecdotes and curiosities while underlining the way he experiences football and life as a whole. He spoke to Futnet, the sportech company that integrates independent professional assessment, technical reporting, scientific validation and, from November, direct access by clubs. Through Futnet, Chivu has offered 200 free assessments to young people using the new platform to be "observed" and assessed by professionals including Walter Sabatini, Christian Brocchi, Walter Zenga, Giorgio Perinetti and Dario Marcolin. And Chivu is the first member of the Honor Wall, which supports the search for talent in Italy.

The relationship with his father

"My father used to send me home on the tram after training. That was his way of teaching me values, I think. And I am sure, at this point in my life, that those were things that have helped me, because I learned to fend for myself.

I had school in the morning, so I had to take public transport to get to training on time and then I had to go back to school again. Once training was over, even though he had a car at his disposal, he never offered me a lift back to school quickly. Sometimes I was late, but I still managed on my own to find ways and solutions to stick to the plans, the timetables and the agreements made with him".

I treat the players like sons

"Is it more difficult to be a good father or a good coach? Without a doubt, a father, because it is a huge responsibility. But you cannot make comparisons, because I treat my players as if they were my children. Obviously there is a difference: they are boys, I have two girls, so the approach changes a bit, and everything about how I am towards them changes a bit.

With my daughters, though, I have always tried to give them the right values, and also the right criticism that is needed, I believe, for a teenager to understand certain things. More or less it is the same thing I did when I started with the Under-14s . I had 13-year-old adolescents, boys who dreamed of becoming footballers, but they were still young boys, always put in a position to play and not to treat seriously what was their profession, if you can call it a profession at thirteen and a half."

Being captain

"Wearing the captain's armband in a dressing room changes a lot and, for those who can feel the responsibility an armband should give you, I think you also need a certain sensitivity to understand what it means to be the one wearing it.

If you also bring a bit of emotional intelligence into that, I believe your self-esteem rises considerably. Not everyone can feel that responsibility and that particular emotion in a way that helps you grow. Too much ego can be the counterweight at times, and it's negative. I experienced that too in the youth sector. I experienced it often at certain moments.

Pio Esposito comes to mind: when I gave him responsibility by handing him the armband, he responded brilliantly and behaved like a very sensitive person. He showed it then and he is still showing it now".

Pio Esposito

We were lucky enough to work with Pio for a long time. He was already with us from the Under-14s, and we then brought him into the Primavera while he was still two years under age. He didn't play much because we preferred other players, but he was still with us. He made the most of what were my gifts, or also what were his own merits, by playing a few matches in the Youth League. I don't remember whether he had done anything in the league, but the year after that he was already a regular in the first team, despite still being under age.

Then he had the courage, because nobody talks about it, to leave the Primavera and go into another environment, which was Serie B , in another city, where he had to prove himself and start again from scratch against real professionals. And in that first year of his in the Primavera, if I'm not mistaken, he scored 17 or 18 goals. The outlook was that the year after, since he was playing under age, he would maybe have scored 30. And he chose to leave. He could have chosen the easier path. He could have done another year in the Primavera and built up his self-confidence by scoring maybe 30 or 40 goals, I don't know.

In the second year he exploded, because he scored 17 goals, if I'm not mistaken, in Serie B. Then I found him again in the first team more ready, more mature, with the same hunger and the same desire to improve . That's why this is important too."

The “cancelled” celebration after the treble

" I didn’t celebrate after the Treble? I lived it only briefly. It was a sigh of relief because of the difficulties of that year. In January I got injured and ended up in the operating theatre. I had doubts and didn’t know whether I could go back to playing football again.

Still, I came back quickly, after two and a half months. We reached the final, we won the league, we won the Cup and we also won the Champions League. But I was thinking about the national team because I had that responsibility. I was also the captain of the national team and I didn’t want them to see me as someone who had become full of himself. The national-team manager had given me a few days off, but I said: "No, I’m the captain of the team, I have to come like everyone else".

The Champions League

"Winning the Champions League is wonderful, it is everyone's dream, I think. It is such an important competition that you can feel it. There is a huge difference between a league match and a Champions League match. It does not matter whether it is the group stage or a last-16 tie: there is a huge difference in terms of an individual player's motivation, but also in terms of a team's motivations.

The difficulties are there because there is no formula that gives you the certainty that you can win the Champions League. There is no amount of money that can buy you a Champions League, nor are there ideas that can buy it for you. It is the sum of many things that come together at a certain point during the season, but later on, around March, I think, and make you understand where you are. Because today, saying who the favourite is on paper is easy enough. But who will go all the way and who will make it is not easy to say".

Something lasting

" I have now reached a point where I think about what comes the day after. I know where I have ended up, I know what my responsibility is, I know what it means to have this great responsibility, but above all I know that I have a responsibility towards my players.

I want to build something that lasts, something that leaves something important in the history of this wonderful club, and I am working towards that. I have mini-goals to achieve in the short term, because I never think all the way to the end.

By starting with small steps and reaching your objectives, you then allow yourself to dream bigger. I only want health for myself and for my players. I only want us to keep the same energy and the same intensity when dealing with certain moments that we all want to improve every day, all of us, myself included. We want to be the best version of ourselves, or the best version of what we were the day before."