England manager Roy Hodgson admits he misses Italy and won’t rule out returning to work there again. “There’s no doubt Italy is a good country to be a football Coach in.”
He started his Italian career at Inter from 1995-97, then returned to San Siro as caretaker in 1999 before a six-month spell on the Udinese” data-scaytid=”2″>Udinese bench in 2001.
England manager Roy Hodgson admits he misses Italy and won’t rule out returning to work there again. “There’s no doubt Italy is a good country to be a football Coach in.”
He started his Italian career at Inter from 1995-97, then returned to San Siro as caretaker in 1999 before a six-month spell on the Udinese bench in 2001.
“I miss the relationships in Italy. I miss your Dad,” Hodgson told Gianfelice Facchetti for La Gazzetta dello Sport. He is the son of ex-Inter President Giacinto Facchetti, who died in September 2006.
“That was a real blow to the world of football and me personally. I miss Massimo Moratti to a certain extent too.
“I miss the climate, of course the food, the people and the warmth, if you like, the friendliness. There’s no doubt Italy is a good country to be a football Coach in, because everyone loves football in Italy.
“Sometimes that can be quite tough on you, as you want to be freer and don’t want people talking to you all the time. But then sometimes you really enjoy that side of things, that everywhere you go they say ‘Hey Mister,’ talking to you and showing how much they care about football. You can miss that.
“There’s lots of things I miss about Italy. I don’t think I could ever come back and work as a Head, hands-on Coach, but who knows, there might be a job for me one day back in Italy if someone would like to take advantage of my experiences, then that could be a possibility.”
Hodgson was appointed England Coach in the run-up to Euro 2012 after Fabio Capello handed in his resignation.
“I enjoy the fact I’ve got the job I want to do, working with the best quality players that England has, a group of players who I can see has the potential to do better.
“Anything in my private life is relatively private, it’s quiet, but it’s still the same things I used to like to do in Italy with the exception of one. My cigar smoking, which I was quite fond of in the old days, was stopped seven or eight years ago on doctor’s orders. So no more cigars for me!”