Lucio Zanon di Valgiurata: la pallavolo è uno sport di grande qualità

Hi, hi, I am very well, and you, how are you?

The problem is fundamentally the planning, and the planning changes every day, constantly it is revolutionized. You don't know with how many athletes to train, you don't know who is stopped, you don't know who you will meet, and then maybe on the other side there is a team like you that is stopped by Covid, so it is damn difficult. And I took for granted something that is not taken for granted: the first concern is perhaps not that, but rather that of ensuring the health and well-being of everyone. So passing through that, maximum attention, maximum care, isolation and everything, then arriving at planning is really very very complicated. Fortunately, in our case, we have a staff that has been working together for a long time, there is a team that started working very early this year, in July, and this helped because I must say that the girls, even though they are not professionals, are very good. Fortunately, they were almost all asymptomatic, and so at home they tried to work, but it is clear that doing push-ups at home is one thing, training in the gym is another, as you know very well. Then they also train with a mental coach to keep their heads, so to speak, alive and free from too many worries. They have been affected by Covid, and the idea of the mental coach is lean because in effect it takes a lot, also here staying at home physically you don't train, but here you condition yourself a lot.

3-0 you won against Trento, 15 points, Perinelli di Robella, you had previously snatched a set from Conegliano since you resumed playing, confirming that you are a good team. Yes, certainly, I would say so. Now then, as always, touch wood or iron, whichever you prefer. We stopped and honestly we were going like a train, so there was great regret to say 'damn, we were launched and we stopped'. Then it is clear that when you resume you have a bit of worry, the first match against Conegliano. Perhaps I dare say fortunately against Conegliano, no, because we played a bit light from a mental point of view, but a crazy desire to play that was seen on the faces of everyone, and we played a good match because after all going there, for goodness sake, losing 3-1 but playing on par, I would say almost 3 sets. Then now I say a heresy but it is not: we could almost have gone 2-0, we were ahead, we were almost always ahead. Then in reality I also tell myself that if they had lost the first, they would not have let us win the second, so we know well how great teams are. But we played a good match at home, at home yesterday against Contento, we played a really excellent game, an excellent game because they are a very very very tricky team, and I say it in the good sense of the term. They write that they see clearly, they are second place after recoveries. You have played nine matches and I must say that practically you would be first in the standings because Conegliano plays another thing, there is another championship. Let's say dreaming costs nothing, so the only thing that doesn't cost, Lucio, take it as a great wish. Actually, we have three matches to recover, they are not exactly walks, none of them are. So we have Bergamo, Busto, and Scandicci, so not easy. The team of Lucio Lorenzo on Wednesday evening, which is not bad, but it is not bad because it is absolutely not bad. No, now joking aside, we will try to get as many points as possible. Let's say the nice thing is that we are mathematically fifth at the end of the first half, because that's what the standings say even before these other matches, so we are qualified for the round of 16 of the Italian Cup. So we have started to achieve some of the objectives of this year.

I am lucky to have a great president who takes care of it, Filippo Gagliano, by the way we greet him, you know him too, and he takes care of all the aspects, let's say, of the relations with the league, federation, etc. I know that it was a thorough and discussed choice, perhaps even with different points of view. It seems to me a common sense choice. At a certain point, there were really many teams that were starting to have a high number of matches to recover. I heard earlier with Giuliani who rightly said that the championship is not falsified, for goodness sake, but it is clear that those who have gone through Covid and those who have not are in different positions, and therefore we need to try at some point to put everyone on an equal footing. This solution of stopping for two weeks and recovering the missing matches seems to me honestly, if not the only possible one, of broad common sense. It is not easy even for teams like ours, because we will play four matches really one after the other, but this is sport. So we knew that this year would be like this, so yes, they seem reasonable decisions.

Look, I will answer you briefly, but first let me say one thing regarding what you said. That is, at the center of our world as a bank there is money, and it is true, it would be foolish to deny it, because we work with a very delicate and important raw material, which is the wealth of our clients, so money. But in recent times, a more complete way has made its way: it is not only that, wealth is a component of general well-being. We have somewhat invented this term, we called it 'web banking', that is, trying to do good banking to make our clients feel good. So you understand that in this sense, how important sport becomes, how important volleyball becomes, because it is a component of our life to make us feel better, to make us feel good. Then, how to solve, how to find the problem of sport? It would require, I think, a webinar, we'll do it. So next time. But now I always say one thing: it is solved, it is not solved, let's say it is improved, by focusing on the things we can do, working on that, not complaining about the things that are not there.

Certainly, the audience is not there, and it is dramatic because you are a man of sport, you know very well that entering an empty arena is very different from entering an arena full of people. And beyond the revenues, there is also, so to speak, the competitive advantage that this gives you when you play at home. But we invent other things: we invent subscriptions to television broadcasts, we have evenings like this, we invent other systems to involve as many people as possible and to not lose anyone. This has been our motto in this period: not losing anyone, not losing anyone in terms of practitioners, not losing anyone in terms of sponsors, a theme that no one in terms of families, people, businesses close to volleyball. So it has also been beautiful this period, only from this point of view, that is, this fact in which truly everyone gave 150 percent and invented things to make us all live and live better, and our sport does not look at us.

I must tell you that you are truly a man of volleyball, because you use words that, since I am quite old in the trade, I understand when someone speaks for the sake of speaking or speaks because they believe in what they say, and the words come from the heart. For you, it is the second case. The first time I met you, I still remember, we were at the presentation of a championship, a calendar, I understood that we had something in common, and that thing is volleyball, volleyball. And from that day, this very cordial relationship started. I am very happy to have met you, dear Lorenzo, just as I am happy to have chatted with you this evening. And on Instagram, it's already an hour, so the seconds are about to expire. I take advantage to remind that the book 'Confidenze' is about to be released, which on the back cover will have an important sponsorship. You take it, then you flip through it and you will see that Credito Emiliano. I thank your boys and the two girls, and that for Christmas the guide 'Ruoli' will be released, which will be the 30th year of the guide. So I want to say, we have all become great, everything on dalla Rivoli dot com, like this interview, because it is not an end in itself but will remain alive. Dear Lorenzo, thank you, thank you, thank you, you will do.