Seeber: “Trento must now consolidate in Serie C, there is an abyss with D” – Sport

by time news

TRENTO. “I am looking for a permanent center of gravity” sang the great Franco Battiato and for the new director general of football Trento Werner Seeber, 57, it seems that the call of the forest, see the return to the places of origin, was once again irresistible in his latest career choice. He left his native Bressanone to seek his fortune in football and reached Serie C in that Chievo which would later have known the glory of the top league for many seasons.Werner finished at 33 years of age as a central defender first at Bolzano and then at Naz in which he was coach / player.

It is therefore almost natural, once you have chosen to continue playing football behind a desk, to start in the rampant Sudtirol and then continue reaching Serie B with Cittadella and Triestina. Then the return to Sudtirol as president before the brief interlude in Lecco and above all the six very important years at the Bassano Virtus of the Rosso family. When mister Diesel buys Vicenza Seeber he is confirmed as sporting director but the relationship is worn out and the South Tyrolean manager returns home to St Georgen where he remains until the end of the season that has just ended.

In recent days, just back in professional football, Trento announces Werner Seeber as the new general manager for a marriage that promises to be full of expectations on both sides.

“Like all my childhood friends from Bressanone, I know how to ski and follow winter sports” – recalls the only professional sports manager South Tyrol has ever produced – “but I have always been attracted to football despite my coming from a non-family certainly passionate about national sport. Living in a secluded place like the north of South Tyrol can seem disadvantageous especially in winter but I managed to establish myself in the Milland youth academies. When I was fifteen my parents didn’t let me go to Fiorentina but two years later I moved to the Cesena youth sector ”.

In Romagna the young Werner is a teammate of several athletes who will break through in football such as Massimo Agostini, Alessandro Bianchi and Sebastiano Rossi led on the bench by one who will go a long way, Arrigo Sacchi.

“Then I would never have said that these teammates would play in great teams and even in the national team as well as I did not think our coach would later become the Milan coach and Italy coach.

Well yes, in the Cesena Primavera I was coached by Arrigo Sacchi and even then he was pounding and his teams stood out for the good game produced. Having become a professional, Cesena lent me to Bolzano, Alfonsine, Cattolica and finally sold me to Bassano with Cinesinho on the bench in the year in which we won the championship by climbing among the professionals ”.

The subsequent move to Chievo represents the highest point in Seeber’s football career. Conquered the C1 with mister Carlo De Angelis in those years the clivense company was laying the foundations for the fantastic jump in the top flight in which it renewed for many seasons the tale of Cinderella admitted to the ball of the greats.

“Unfortunately I was part of that group only at the beginning and I would not forget the coaches Gianni Bui and above all Alberto Malesani who, thanks to the years at Chievo, has earned the call of great Serie A clubs. I remember that we had a defense with the Trentino players Rolando Maran, Beniamino Montagni and Christian Maraner and in attack that Giovanni Sartori was still playing who then as sporting director would have had great merits in the explosion of Chievo and with whom I later had various working relationships. When I realized that the club would no longer focus on myself, I preferred to go really far from home for the first time in Catanzaro and, despite a season with disappointing results, it was an important experience in my professional growth and beyond ” .

On the threshold of 30 years and with a career already addressed, Werner feels the need to go home wearing the shirts of Bolzano and Naz of which he is the coach / player (“a particular adventure because the two roles can create confusion but on the pitch I could still have my say and the environment accepted the double role “) before quitting at 33. The next step behind the desk could not but begin with the most important team in South Tyrol.

“President Leopold Goller and director Hans Huber asked me to become sporting director and I was immediately catapulted behind a desk for my first real professional experience. After two years I went to the Cittadella in Serie B and in the Paduan club I had under the protective wing that Stefano Marchetti who took over from me and is the main architect of the last great seasons of the grenade in the cadet championship. I have no qualms in saying that Stefano is a champion of the trade in a solid and lean society like the Cittadella in which there is no pressure from the square which certainly facilitates anyone’s work ”.

A mountain to climb, that is, the fact of working in a football-hot place, which led Seeber to leave Veneto for the glorious Triestina who was facing the Serie B championship with mixed results.

“Very positive first year with president Amilcare Berti and Attilio Tesser on the bench, launching several young promises such as Alberto Aquilani, Daniele Galloppa, Davide Moscardelli and Damiano Ferronetti.

In the second season Berti had lost his enthusiasm and the team suffered from it until the arrival of the volcanic president Flaviano Tonellotto who broke everything. At that time I could accept various proposals but he preferred to return to South Tyrol where I even became president ”.

The second return to Bolzano consolidated the path of the red and white in Serie C with coaches of the caliber of Marco Baroni, Aldo Firicano, Maurizio D’Angelo and Marco Alessandrini but after three years Werner accepted Lecco’s proposal (“good first year with Giorgio Roselli coach unfortunately not confirmed the following season “) until the long marriage with the Rosso family, owner of the Diesel, first in the six years in Bassano del Grappa and then in the short interlude in Vicenza.

“In Bassano we have always reached the objectives set at the start and, by selling the best pieces every year, we often started from scratch with satisfactory results. When the Rosso family bought the Vicenza I realized that the operational strategies had changed and therefore I preferred to remove the trouble and go home again to St. Georgen in Brunico in Excellence. Unfortunately, Covid then arrived, so much so that we didn’t even manage to finish the championship “.

Since last week Werner Seeber is the new general director of Trento in an adventure that is emerging under all the best auspices.

“I had the first contacts with the president Mauro Jacket a couple of years ago but then the time was not yet ripe to do something together. Now, however, the timing is perfect and I had no doubts in choosing this opportunity. I already know the team, the sporting director Gementi and the coach Parlato who have obviously been confirmed after the splendid promotion just obtained. However, remaining with my feet firmly planted on the ground, I can safely say that for Trento the C series will be a category to be consolidated over time before thinking of something more important. After 18 years among amateurs now we need to build the foundations of a house that will have to be solid for a long time. There is a technical, economic and administrative abyss between Serie D and professional football and it will be up to us to be ready.

I can safely say already that I have come to a perfect place to work and I am surrounded by people who are up to the task. The next Serie C championship?

I think there will be squadrons like Modena, Cesena and Padua that start ahead but, as far as we are concerned, we will have to think about other objectives such as maintaining the category. Rivalry with Sudtirol? The direct confrontation with them for regional supremacy will be stimulating but for the moment the South Tyrolean team remains a model to imitate and possibly to overcome ”.

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