U21: new staff unveiled. Cecchetti: "I’m relying on people with very solid foundations"

The veil over the new Under-21 National Team staff was lifted this afternoon. New, but only in part. The starting point is the certainties, the core group of staff who have managed to post impressive numbers over the past two years, first under the guidance of Fabrizio Costantini and then under that of Matteo Cecchetti. And it is precisely the former Tre Fiori coach who was the first and most important confirmation. As underlined by FSGC President Marco Tura in the speech that opened today’s press conference, there was never any doubt about Cecchetti’s qualities, and therefore about the continuation of his tenure as head coach of the Biancoazzurrini. “Today is merely a formal investiture” – began the head of the San Marino Football Federation – “The decision to continue with Matteo had been taken some time ago. We remain true to our principles and, above all, to that major technical project which we believe can bring us tangible results within a few years. After all, we are already starting to see something, such as the recent achievement of our Under-19 National Team. Everything is geared towards the development of our young players and the decision to continue to entrust the Under-21 bench to Matteo Cecchetti was taken precisely with this in mind. We know we have chosen the right people for this task.” Remaining alongside Cecchetti are assistant coaches Antonio Gespi and Matteo Turroni, fitness coach Alessandro Testoni, team doctor Salvatore Monaldini and goalkeeping coach Marcello Teodorani. The new faces include Nicola Canarezza, who takes over from Luca Nanni as team manager, Fabrizio Mastini (assistant coach) and Paolo Gori (physiotherapist). These names were listed by Cecchetti himself, who immediately stressed how everyone can count on his “full trust. All of us” – the coach continued – “know that we have a major mission ahead of us. I am relying on people with very solid foundations. They bring competence, commitment, passion and attachment to the National Team. These are all values we place great emphasis on and that we want to pass on to our lads. This week we started with the first training sessions and I’ve had confirmation that we will be able to work well. We are all fired up. Our targets for the two-year cycle? We are coming off an important result, the 0-0 draw with Latvia, but I would say that was just the icing on the cake. In reality we have put together a very significant run, starting from the Costantini era. In those ten matches we managed to post numbers that will not be easy to repeat, let alone improve on. But that is our goal. It’s ambitious, but the lads are not afraid. And neither are we. We know our limits and we will work precisely on those in order to turn them into our strengths.”

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