Giorgio Contini made his first public appearance since his end as YB coach. He talked about his departure from the capital - but not only that.
He sat at the front, calm, confident, in no bad mood, in a dark green shirt. Giorgio Contini appeared in public for the first time since the Bernese Young Boys relieved him of his duties at the end of October. He did so as part of the presentation of the book "Mensch Fussballstar" by Andreas Böni. The blue Sport editor-in-chief spoke with Contini and long-time presenter and commentator Dani Wyler at the Orell Füssli bookshop in Wil about the abysses and dark sides of the glamorous world of football.
Who better than Contini, who has been a coach for 20 years and has experienced so much since then: victories, defeats, promotions, but also dismissals like the one in Bern just now? Contini didn't seem dejected at all, but rather tidy. A man who knows that every coach will meet the fate of dismissal at some point - unless his name is Ferguson, Klopp or Guardiola.
Nevertheless, Contini also said openly: "The dismissal at YB hurts a lot." Although you know that a dismissal is an occupational risk, it is also a personal defeat. "Of course, you also ask yourself what you did wrong," says Contini.
After a personal analysis, however, he came to the conclusion that the dismissal in Bern was not necessarily self-inflicted, but had to do with decisions that he could not directly influence. He did not say which decisions he meant. After all, the coach still has a contract in Bern until 2027.
The head of sport and the tactics board
Contini also said that he keeps a diary in which he notes down his findings: positive, negative, purely analytical. This helps him to assess his own work and look at it from a distance.
And he talked about what a coach feels when he is constantly exposed and his work is constantly being evaluated - by fans, the media, but also by the bare table. "The constant pressure from various sides can change you as a coach, but also as a person." Andreas Böni spoke of the coach as a "lone fighter".
A coach can sometimes feel powerless and lonely. Contini knows that too. So it can sometimes happen that a head of sport pulls out a blackboard and lectures the coach on tactics. "That can be humiliating and come across as bullying," says the coach.
Contini, however, affirmed that he refrains from consuming media, both traditional and social. Probably not only due to a lack of interest, but also out of self-protection.
Böni then quoted from a chapter of his book in which the former national team coach Ottmar Hitzfeld spoke about his depression. Passages that not only impressed Contini.
Criticism of coach training
And yet: Quit? Give up? No. Contini loves football and his job too much. "After all, it's my passion," he said. You have to deal with the negative aspects. "Now it's also about gaining more distance for me." After that, the former coach of Vaduz, St. Gallen, Lausanne and GC wants to attack again. The environment is important here. Contini says: "It's also important to have friends outside of football."
Contini also provided one concrete suggestion for improvement - namely for coach training. This, he said, presented the player primarily as a footballer, or to put it bluntly, as a chess piece, and not enough as a person. A major omission for Contini. "We coaches in Switzerland lack psychological training."
