01 April 2023 , 21:30
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Cristian Stellini had to wipe away tears as he opened up on the coaching job which put Tottenham ’s ‘troubles’ into perspective.
To the outside world, Spurs have lurched back into a crisis following Antonio Conte’s sacking last Sunday and the extending of managing director of football Fabio Paratici’s ban from Italy to worldwide. But Stellini sees things very differently, thanks largely to the time he spent coaching a group of asylum seekers and refugees in 2012 and 2013 while serving his own ban following a match-fixing scandal in Italy.
That period peaked with him leading his group to victory in an Italian tournament called the Balon Mundial. And, choking back tears, the 48-year-old said: “It’s very emotional, talking about that experience.
“It allowed me to grow as a man, not as a professional, because they were not professional, they were refugees. They tried to have something new in their lives and what I learned was that, back home, they had more problems than me.
“Obviously, I was sad for my situation but they smiled, they worked hard. We had 35 people coming without shoes, with socks, and they said, ‘I can train?’ We said, ‘Yes, but you need shoes’.
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“They said, ‘Shoes? I play without shoes’. We said, ‘How can you play without shoes against players with studs? It’s dangerous for you’. They said, ’No, it’s not dangerous, don’t worry’.
“There was one from Afghanistan, many from Morocco, a lot from Ghana, DR Congo, many more from Africa. The guy from Afghanistan tried to come on a dinghy but they took him back to Turkey not once but three times.
Cristian Stellini coached a group of asylum seekers and refugees in 2012 and 2013 (Francesco Scaccianoce/Getty Images)“The next step for him was hiding in a big spare tyre. He hid there until Greece, for maybe 24 hours, and when he arrived, they brought him out all curled up, it was impossible for him to extend his legs.
“He was a boxer and also not a perfect man. He was guilty of something and had to hide in Italy, and he needed a lawyer. But he came to train every day with a smile and said, ‘You have to call me ‘Robben’.
“They taught me a lot of things about enjoying your life. We played many matches and won a tournament called Mundialito in Turin. The last was a tournament with national teams — you needed seven players from, say, Brazil to call yourselves Brazil. We were the only team with so many refugees.
“We won, but with a goalkeeper with one eye. All the players said to me, ‘If we go to penalties, he has to be the keeper’. I said, ‘But he is without an eye’.
Cristian Stellini has rebuked conversations saying Tottenham are in crisis (Getty Images)“They said, ‘But he is the top keeper, he saves every penalty’. In the semi-final and final he saved three penalties and we won the tournament. I said, ‘How is this possible?’ They said, ‘It’s about desire’.”
Stellini must convince Tottenham’s stars to find a similar kind of desire and he wants to put a smile back on their faces. He added: “This is one of the first things I said to the players, ‘I don’t want sad faces here’.
“I want only players with smiles, because we are playing football. We are playing for Tottenham. You cannot feel it’s a crisis when you have a club around you, when you have fans around you.
“Crisis is a different thing. Crisis means you cannot play football. When we had Covid, that was a crisis for everyone. It’s a crisis when you don’t have fans in your stadium.
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“But now we play, we have everything, we have 10 games to play and the club can take a decision in the future. We feel at home here. Crisis? It is speculation to try to punch Tottenham, this is what it is.”