A different kind of football, simpler and more familiar. Nicola Berti, former midfielder for Parma, Fiorentina, Inter, and Tottenham, recalled in an interview with SportWeek, the magazine of Gazzetta dello Sport, the summer training camps of the Eighties and Nineties, so far removed from today’s modern organization.

For Berti, the pre-season was not only about athletic preparation, but above all an opportunity to strengthen the bond with teammates. The weeks spent in training camp were divided between intense training sessions, walks, meetings with fans, and pranks in the locker room, in an atmosphere that today seems to belong to another era. Travel to the fields often took place by bus, friendlies were played in small mountain towns, and fans could easily approach the players.

“Everything was easier, lighter. Now they’re locked away and it’s become deadly boring. In the evening I would pick a VHS movie to watch with the team,” explained the former Nerazzurri player. Compared to modern training camps, organized in reserved facilities with strict programs and limited access, those of the past offered a much more direct relationship with the surrounding environment.

Particularly curious is the anecdote linked to the training camps in Trentino with Trapattoni’s Inter: “In the evenings in the rooms, all equipped with piped music, we would put on a movie. It was still the VHS era and I was the one in charge of picking from the videotapes available in the hotel lobby. The thing is, every time the reception notified me of a phone call for me, before accepting it I would say to stop the movie, sometimes right at the best part. And my teammates would get pissed off. I could hear them shouting, insulting me, some would come banging on the door calling me every name in the book. But what was I supposed to do, not answer the phone? On the other hand, I didn’t want to miss the end of the movie. When I finished talking, I’d call the front desk and tell them to start the tape again.”

The former midfielder then recalled other episodes: “We had two or three vans to get around. I drove one, with my teammates holding onto the headrests and seats while I had fun revving the engine along the few kilometers from the hotel to the training field. Then I remember the classic water fights: I didn’t do them, at most I was on the receiving end, but with the heat they weren’t so unpleasant. At Inter even Klinsmann, Matthaus, and Brehme sometimes enjoyed throwing water: people think Germans are serious, all stiff, but the ones I knew had more fun than the Italians.”

The inevitable pranks among teammates, from buckets of water to little tricks in the rooms, helped create that team spirit which then showed on the field during the season.

👉🏻 CONTINUE READING