Andrea Pirlo was appointed as Juventus coach to replace Maurizio Sarri, who was fired after Juventus failed again in the 2019/20 Champions League. Two goals scored by Cristiano Ronaldo did manage to bring Juventus to a 2-1 win over Olympique Lyon at Juventus Stadium, but a 1-0 defeat at Parc Olympique Lyonnais made Juventus lose on away goals.
Pirlo will actually train Juventus with zero experience as a coach. He actually hasn’t actually gotten a UEFA Pro license because the license will only be released in October (hampered by the corona pandemic). This is the pros and cons of the appointment of Pirlo as Juventus allenatore.
But Juventus did not seem to hesitate to employ Pirlo. Apart from having a brilliant career as a player, one of the factors that Juve believes in Pirlo’s ability is because the Maestro has undergone Il Centro Tecnico Federale at Coverciano (coverciano).
Coverciano is a place in Florence Italy which has given birth to many talented coaches from Italy and various other countries. Call it the names of great coaches such as Fabio Capello, Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto Mancini, Claudio Ranieri, Antonio Conte, Massimilliano Allegri and many other coaches undergoing their coaching courses at this place.
Luigi Ridolfi is credited with the establishment of this facility. As told by the site These Football Times, Luigi Ridolfi came from one of the richest families in Italy at that time. His love for sports made him a lot in this field. He served as president of the Italian athletic federation from 1962 to 1942. After that, he was president of the Italian Football Federation for one year.
Ridolfi had the idea to build something unique in Italy. He is determined to build a facility where the world’s best coaches gather to exchange ideas and thoughts.
Ridolfi then met Dante Barreti who also had the same thoughts as him. Finally, through the cooperation of both of them and FIGC, Coverciano was built in 1952 and completed in 1957. In 1958 Coverciano began operating.
Currently, apart from providing world-class football courses, Coverciano is also one of the FIGC’s technical offices. The Italian U-15 to U-19 national teams also underwent training in this area. However, the most famous of this place is of course the football coaching course which has spawned many big names.
Coverciano has world-class facilities that support activities that take place in this area. There are 4 soccer fields with 3 of them using natural grass and one using synthetic grass. Then also equipped with a Gym which contains equipment with the latest technology in the world. In addition, there are also 2 mini fields, one measuring 9×9 meters, and one five-a-side field using synthetic grass.
Apart from the field, Coverciano also has supporting facilities such as an auditorium, conference room, medical area, restaurants, bars, hotels and libraries. Plus, Coverciano is also equipped with a swimming pool and two tennis courts.
The most valuable of these facilities is of course the library. The Coverciano library houses all the theses of participants in the football coaching course held in Coverciano. Starting from Fabio Capello’s thesis which discusses the zonal marking system to Antonio Conte’s thesis which discusses the 4-3-1-2 system. Everything is neatly stored in this library.
The thesis is the culmination of a series of coaching course activities to get the UEFA Pro license in Ceverciano. Each participant must make a thesis which is his / her own latest innovation and then present it and must be defended in the thesis session.
Coverciano still keeps Ridolfi’s passion when he built this place, which is to continue creating new creativity for the future of football. Renzo Ulivieri, director of the coaching activity held in Cevorciano, explained to the Bleacher Report that he emphasized that every participant must have a desire to be creative.
Interestingly, Coverciano has never put out a book on coaching materials or anything like that. Participants who took the course were not given a single handbook. “The coaches who come to this place are not given any books. What does it mean? If I write a book today, it may take two years to complete, so when the book can be given, what is written in the book has expired for two years, ”said Ulivieri explaining why no handbook was given to course participants.
“If I teach the participants what I learned from my coach, they will be 50 years behind. What we have to teach the participants is what will happen to football in the next 10 years. We have to see the future, “added Uliviera.
Andrea Pirlo is registered as a coaching course participant at Coverciano batch 2018. He underwent courses with several other big names who are also former world players such as Gabriel Batistuta, Thiago Motta, Alberto Gilardino, Paolo Cannavaro, and several other names.
Pirlo himself just plans to submit his thesis in October 2020. However, Pirlo has received the blessing of Ulivieri to start his coaching career. Ulivieri sees Pirlo as a potential coach in the future.
“Pirlo hasn’t got the license yet, but he got the permit because of what he has been doing during the course. “He will submit his thesis in October officially as coach,” Ulivieri told Calciomercato.
“Pirlo knows what many other coaches don’t. I firmly believe that Pirlo is one of the most thoughtful people about football at the moment, “added Ulivieri.
ASL
