AC Milan Women head coach Maurizio Ganz gave an interview to the La Gazzetta dello Sport this week and spoke about his player career with AC Milan, the 1998/1999 Scudetto and his current job at the AC Milan Women.
Here are hist words:
On how he sees the Football:
"For me there is no men's football and women's football, for me there is football, maybe they play a bit differently, but there is Football. When I arrived here, the club was already great, the players were fantastic and I found technical players, physicality and tactics. These are the components you talk about Football in general, not of Men's football or Women's football."
On the analogies with the Men's Team:
"I think that belonging is fundamental and our players, my players, have understood that and they always feel the pressure that comes from wearing the Milan shirt, feel the responsibility that they cannot give up , they must always give everything and try to win every game, specially against the other big clubs. I think those analogies are important, they give you that feeling of responsibility, that’s why this season is so important"
How he evaluates his work:
"Well, I arrived the past season and, actually, my personal goal was to perfectly understand the environment, the team itself and, honestly, looking back now I think I did a good job, we were second but after the halt of the League, they decided the title with the algorithm, and personally it was not the right thing but we accepted, because with Milan these things happens, and we have arrived in third. And this year, in the league, the goal was to get make it to the Champions League Zone, finish in the top two."
On his contract renewal for the 2021/2022 season:
"I Tell you; They did it because of the results, of the project and I'm happy. It is clear that the project is there, we’re achieving the goals and I believe we can achieve everything. As I said many times before, my dream, in the moment, my dream is to win with Milan. I was fortunate enough to win with the Milan shirt as a player to be able to win also as a coach would be something incredible, so and I believe this can happen. The club has given confidence, I am happy and so I am just glad to be able stay here for another season, to renew my contract because it means that I have done something important."
On the differences between coaching a Men's Team and a Women's Team:
"I tell you the easiest thing is to train them. They give you 100% every time, they don’t feel tired, don’t complain about the trainings and they always want to learn, always want to play, so it has made it me much easier to me. Sometimes I struggled with them because it is clear that the kind of approach, the relationship I had with the men’s team clearly must be different from the relationship, the way we behave with the Women’s team. The men’s team do things and talk things in a way that with the Women’s team doesn’t work out. The hardest thing for me was changing how I communicate, because with them I must always be always direct. It must always be direct, sometimes even raw, but they appreciate it, you know? So, for me, this was a bit difficult, to understand that some words with them do not go well, so I am supposed to be very straightforward with them, but when I learned this, everything got easier, more efficient."
