Corvino: "Replace the old and obsolete system to re-promote our calcio"
Pantaleo Corvino gave another interview after leaving Lecce and said that the obsolete system in Italy needs to be changed to revive football.
Pantaleo Corvino opened his mind again after the formal farewell to Lecce: in an interview for Tuttomercatoweb he defined the need—the change of a system, according to him, "obsolete" to re-promote Italian calcio.
Asked if he still misses the daily work at the club, the training and the negotiations, Corvino replied: "Not yet — not because not even a month has passed. We are gay, still contaminated, after six years really full of strength and energy to first try to get out of B to A and then keep Serie A for at least five years, as well as the Primavera title. We achieved all this in a situation where the economic result is as important as the technical one. No easy."
He explained the difficulty of the process of strengthening the club's livelihood: "There is a process of 'patrimonializzazione' that needs to be done to keep the club sustainable — to make it last over time, and there is an exact payroll that you need to manage to reach the main goal. The patrimonializzare is a very difficult exercise that really required a lot of work from us." Because of this, he said, it's only right to rest first and get new energy: "The fun and the passion are still there. But it's right to rest after 50 years of going from the third category to the Champions League and after six more years like a scudetto—safety is sometimes like a scudetto. It's hard and I need to recharge. If there's a good and important project, I'll come back."
Regarding the recent sitting of Giovanni Malagò as President of the FIGC and if he is the right person for the "relaunch" of calcio, Corvino had a strong comment — not against Malagò himself but the situation: "I have already given a strong opinion. The problem is not the lack of a conductor, nor the lack of coaches or directors. In Italy there is quality. The problem is a system that is obsolete, old; a system that needs to be changed. When that system changes, the presidentes federali will have At the moment, it seems that the system is, again, obsolete. It is also true that they did not exist at the time when we won the mundials, and because of the quality of the conductors, coaches and directors, there is a system that does not allow that to be a real quality for the national teams mundial system allows clubs to send their players only two or three days before."
He also talked about the possibility of reforming Primavera and other parts of the system: "There are also many aspects that are falling in the system. It's not Gravina's or Malagò's fault if we can't enter the mundial; it's not Spalletti's or Gattuso's fault either. It's all the result of a system that prevents presidents from giving their best because of limitations."
<figure style="margin:2rem 0;overflow:hidden;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;background:#f9f9f9"><img src="https://tmw-storage-auto.tcccdn.com/storage/tuttomercatoweb.com/img_notizie/thumb3/60/60f7cd00e11caf5bb04e44f3c112bc3c-26826-oooz0000.jpeg" alt="Image" style="width:100%;height:auto;object-fit:contain" loading="lazy" /></figure>When it comes to new coaches that attract him, Corvino mentions the name of Rúben Amorim: "I am a little intrigued by Amorim, because if you look at the last two years, he is the coach who gave the most technical and economic results to the two players I sold: Hjulmand to Sporting Lisbon for over 20 million euros (we bought for €180,000) and Dorgu to Manchester United for €35 million (bought by €200,000).They both had a big boom under Amorim, so I'm watching and I'm betting on him."
Regarding Milan and the removal of the entire structure of the club after not entering the Champions League on the last day, Corvino said that he understood the emotional reaction: "The disappointment of not qualifying for the Champions may have caused a 'cyclical' reaction. Sometimes reflection is needed; conductors are also human and sometimes act rashly like a coach who decides on a substitution and later regrets or a director who made a mistake in selecting a player."
Nor did Corvino forget the mural dedicated to him near his house, made by a well-known street artist who drew the strikers he discovered in the career: from his time in Casarano with Miccoli and Francioso, in Lecce with Lucarelli, Pellè, Bojinov, Vucinic, to Fiorentina with Toni, Mutu, Osvaldo, Seferovic, Vieri, Vlahovic and Gilardino. "A graffiti artist who is one of the most important in Italy gifted it to me and I'm grateful. Antonio quoted my saying 'it's better to make a mistake with the wife than the striker'—and he could dedicate that mural to me."
Regarding Dusan Vlahovic, Corvino described as a "champion in his position": "I'm not surprised—he's a champion in his role. Even though he's only 26 and considered young for a central striker, he's always responsive and still has the desire to improve. At Fiorentina, I remember that after training sessions he was left to work and progress. Every big club would benefit from that kind of player."
There is also a discussion about the possibility of a rapid increase in the value of some players after just one strong season in Serie A: "It's potential. After just one season at Cagliari we're already talking about potential. But the lack of quality sometimes pushes clubs to take risks; more than €50 million for a player with one good season for a mid-table club may seem like a loss, but you also understand that if the top clubs don't really see that quality (or if they see, the price will go up even more), sometimes they will take a risk."
In sum, Corvino argued that the key to the resurgence of Italian calcio is not to change a single person, but to change the entire system to allow existing talents and abilities to convert into concrete quality for the national team.
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