Nicolò Zaniolo’s agent Claudio Vigorelli is not impressed by Milena Bertolini’s claims on his client: ‘That’s how you poison football.’
The coach of the Italy women national football team caused controversy during TV program 90° Minuto yesterday by claiming that Zaniolo “must be helped and educated.”
On Sunday, the 22-year-old had been sent off for dissent in Roma‘s 0-0 draw against Genoa after seeing a potential late winner disallowed following a VAR check.
The midfielder’s mum Francesca Costa took to social media to defend his boy and the player’s agent Vigorelli has now replied to Bertolini’s claims.
“Life, at times, is a concentration of form and substance, timing and opportunity,” Vigorelli said in an official statement published by several Italian outlets.
“Nicolò Zaniolo is 22 years old and has all the strength and limits that this age expresses. He is a heritage of Roma – who are always by his side – and of Italian football.
“I am not the only one saying it as his agent, but also the technical and political leaders of the National Team, who, among other things, have already informally comforted him these days.
“Having said that, I am sorry to see that one of the most internationally trained coaches, Milena Bertolini, has not been able to smooth her language to adapt to the role and the particular situation that the boy is experiencing.
“Nicolò ‘must be educated’ to the same extent as it is necessary to do so towards his peers. Nothing more and nothing less. I’d like to add that any person in the world of football should improve his communication, making it more in tune with an extremely complex reality.
“Those who train, after all, have the right-duty to place themselves towards their referents as a kind of master of the body but also of the spirit, exercising that work of knowledge and tolerance that open the doors to growth.
“I like to highlight that Nicolò’s real fortune is not just to have a unique footballing talent, but also to have a marvellous family that educates and protect him.
“Igor, Francesca and Benedetta represent the wealth that will pave the way for the dazzling career to which his technical-physical means are leading him.
“The rest is just clichés and bad interpretations which poisons more and more a football sick of rhetoric.”
Ag. #Zaniolo risponde a Milena #Bertolini: 'Luoghi comuni, così si avvelena il calcio. Nicolò va educato come tutti' https://t.co/6T4CDs5W12 pic.twitter.com/QI2W36L71e
— calciomercato.com (@cmdotcom) February 7, 2022