Empoli President Fabrizio Corsi reveals three other Premier League clubs wanted to sign Guglielmo Vicario and insists he may refuse to sell other players while plans for the refurbishment of the Stadio Castellani are ongoing.
Italy international Vicario has moved to North London for €20m, becoming the biggest sale in Empoli’s history. The Tuscans had signed Vicario from Cagliari for just €8.5m only two years earlier.
“I had never mentioned Tottenham’s interest in my previous interviews, but they had been interested for a long time, along with other three Premier League clubs and at least two top Italian clubs,” Empoli President Corsi says in an exclusive interview with Football Italia.
“The Italian and English markets are very different. Premier League clubs have already started to sign new players, in Italy we are waiting for sales before making new purchases. Vicario did great things at Empoli, so, of course, there was a lot of interest. Nowadays there are stats to assess players’ performances and he had impressive figures.
“Vicario is first and foremost a great person and when he left he saluted everyone with great affection here at Empoli, both at the club and in the city. From now on, when I turn on the TV, I’ll first watch Empoli games and then Tottenham.”
Empoli, 30km from Florence, has barely 50,000 residents, but have been playing Serie A football consistently during the Corsi presidency. The Tuscan entrepreneur bought the club in 1991 when they were in Serie C.
“It was supposed to be something short-term,” he recalls.
“A group of people part of the previous board of directors and Renzo Bagnoli, founder of Sammontana [one of Empoli’s historic sponsors] convinced me to buy the club. It was an emergency solution but in the end, I’ve kept the club for more than 30 years.
“We are going step by step. We are humble and our identity as a club and as a city is well defined. People here live football with passion but are also very balanced.
“There have been many winning cycles and some tough moments. Sometimes we had to start from scratch and change everything but luckily, we’ve found many reputable professionals and great people who have helped us along the way.”
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Luciano Spalletti is one of the men who changed Empoli’s history. He first moved to the Castellani as a player at the beginning of the 90s and then started his coaching career in Serie C.
“We signed Spalletti in 1991 and he’s been a key figure for us,” Corsi admits.
“Francesco Guidolin was our head coach at that time and Spalletti and I were already great friends. We still are. He played here and then became a coach, gaining promotions to Serie B and Serie A for the first time [under his presidency].
“He started his coaching career in the youth sector, but then he was appointed as the first team coach and I could already see some of the characteristics he has shown during the rest of his career in the dugout.
“He used to study every opponent meticulously as every coach does in Serie A these days, but back then we were in Serie C. He created a great atmosphere inside the dressing room and we obtained big things.”
In the following 30 years, many big Serie A players and coaches moved the first steps of their successful careers at Empoli.
Aside from Spalletti and Guidolin, Maurizio Sarri, Silvio Baldini, Alberto Malesani, Marco Giampaolo and Alessio Dionisi were picked by Corsi during his tenure.
On the pitch, Antonio Di Natale scored 55 goals in 179 games with the Azzurri becoming the third-best scorer in the club’s history, followed by Massimo Maccarone (101 goals in 284 games) and Francesco Tavano (120 goals in 311 matches).
Vincenzo Montella, Riccardo Saponara, Elseid Hysaj, Mario Rui and Daniele Rugani, just to name a few, spent one or more seasons at Empoli before joining big clubs and Vicario is just the last one on the list.
Over the last few years, Ismael Bennacer and Rade Krunic joined Milan, Giovanni Di Lorenzo signed for Napoli, winning the Serie A title alongside Spalletti and Mario Rui in 2022-23, while Kristjan Asllani went to Inter.
Empoli are quite a unique club in Italy. They don’t only sign players from lesser leagues, developing them and selling for high fees after a few years. They raise most of their talents in their youth sector which is one of the best in Italy. Tommaso Baldanzi is the latest academy product shining in Serie A and on the international stage.
The 20-year-old reached the U20 World Cup Final with the Azzurri this month. The promising attacking midfielder started every match in Argentina and collected two goals and two assists in seven appearances. U21 Italy international Fabiano Parisi is not a product of the club academy but joined the Azzurri for €450,000 from Avellino in 2020 and has become one of the hottest commodities in the market this summer.
Both he and Baldanzi have been linked with joining some of Italy’s top clubs, including Napoli, Milan and Juventus, but this doesn’t mean they’ll leave.
“The books look good, we’ve reached our financial targets to June 30, so we see what will happen over the course of the summer,” says Corsi.
“We’ve made our assessment and we think that some players, but I am not going to name any of them, still need to complete their development, so maybe the best solution for them is to remain at the club for another season.”
As for transfers, investments from the Saudi Pro League are also impacting the management of clubs like Empoli.
“On the one hand, it’s an opportunity because there are clubs who can invest big money, especially in England and this reflects on Italian football as well,” notes Corsi.
“On the other hand, there are some issues. For example, the second division in England is also becoming very rich. They pay a lot of money for transfers and wages so there is more competition and this can become a problem for clubs like Empoli.”
The Tuscans are now planning for the long-term future and the project for a new stadium is the starting point.
“Hopefully, Italy will host the [2032] Euros so we can start a path that would allow clubs to build new stadiums, as we did for Italia 90 even if, I have to say, some of those stadiums already looked old after a few years,” admits the Azzurri patron.
“We are planning to refurbish the Stadio Castellani and make it more comfortable to fans and families with modern, high-level standards that allow fans to enjoy home matches even more.”
In 2023-24 Empoli will play their third consecutive Serie A campaign. Paolo Zanetti led the team to a comfortable survival in 2022-23 and will remain in charge of the Tuscans next season. Corsi is ready to face what’s coming next.
“I don’t have the same energy as 10 years ago, but we have a group of people with great qualities who are doing a great job every day.
“Thanks to the help of great people, we’ve made an extraordinary journey. I could only dream of what we’ve achieved. Perhaps the biggest target we had in mind was to win Serie C and play in Serie B for one season, but eventually, we’ve done much more,” he concludes.
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Apollo Heyes contributed to this interview. Twitter: @ApolloHeyes