A treble as a player, a double as a coach. The emotion of finding himself on the other side and leading his beloved team was recounted by Cristian Chivu in a long interview with DAZN, conducted by Andrea Marinozzi. Below is an excerpt.
Were you the best version of yourselves?
“With ups and downs, because you have to accept that too, it’s part of the journey, part of the process, but in terms of what we tried to convey, every day we always tried to be our best version. Then the match is a story of its own, a separate story, it also depends on thousands of situations you have to adapt to, because the opponent probably never offers exactly what you prepare for during those two or three days you have to get ready for the next match. So you have to accept that there are pitfalls you need to know how to overcome, and you overcome them when you put on the field the best version of yourself that you have on that specific day, both mentally and physically.”
What kind of season was it for you?
“Wonderful, now that it’s all over, but tough because I found myself in a situation with a certain responsibility, with a group of players who are already established, with a certain value, because they’ve shown it over the years, in the last 5-6 years. And it was tough, tough because at the beginning there are so many uncertainties, because you don’t know how things work. Even though I was lucky enough to know this group, to know these players, because over the years with the Primavera we often went to Appiano, so I already had an idea of what they are like from a human and personal point of view, I had formed that idea in the past. But it was nice, because they challenged me to bring out the best version of myself as well.”
The fans celebrated with your helmet, because an Interista won. What kind of emotion is that for you?
“It’s a special emotion that I have never lost in all these years, because the beauty of Inter is that when you arrive and start to get to know its history, you start to personally experience what it means to live in this club, in this team, it stays with you. It stays with you forever because it has a way of doing things, a way of perceiving certain things that you never take away from your life. I have great appreciation for what my past has been, starting from Romania, the teams I played for, but Inter, not because it’s been 7 years, but because it’s the most beautiful part of my career, probably also because of the maturity I’ve reached from a human point of view, probably also because the summer I arrived in Milan I met my future wife, with whom I am still together after 19 years. I have two daughters born in Milan, so it’s something special for me, it’s something unique and having, speaking of what my season has been, having this responsibility and the possibility to coach the team you have in your heart, it’s beautiful, it’s beautiful and stressful, because it’s a huge responsibility, because I don’t want to disappoint the expectations of the people who gave me this opportunity, of the people who believed in me. And then the players, especially them, because they already knew me before, probably had some doubts about what I am like as a person, what I am like technically, but we did it together and it has immense value, because yes, I had won as a player, but winning as a coach is even more beautiful“.
What was going through your mind at the final whistle of Inter-Parma?
“It’s over, I breathed, it’s always like that in football: winning a match is a sigh of relief, losing it becomes a tragedy, a drama because you think about the things you did wrong, what you could have done better, the decisions during the game, what didn’t work, what maybe I wasn’t able to convey. Winning is easier, because it’s a relief, but at the same time you also ask yourself a couple of questions. But I would say I had already spent a lot celebrating during the season, because I often went on the pitch, often dropped to my knees, maybe let out a bit of everything I had inside. This, yes, was the icing on the cake of all my emotions, never losing sight of the work of the boys, the staff, the club, the support of the fans. And I was smiling because I was happy it was over. And it ended in the best possible way, what I think a coach dreams of, what a person dreams of when given a certain responsibility. I was happy for my family, because for them too it was over, because they probably lived it with more tension than I did this season. And it was over for the boys too, who really gave it their all.”
