14 March 2024
Women's Football Director of Juventus Stefano Braghin spoke at a conference in the press room of the Juventus Training Center in Vinovo.
Contract renewal
“In these twelve years of Juve I feel at home. It's a club that has marked a long stretch of my career, I would struggle to see myself behind any other logo. It has always been difficult for me to think of being able to watch this team as an opponent. The fact that the Club felt that this could be a place to feel at home makes me proud. I believe that Juventus is not a club like the others, when you have the privilege of being there you have to keep it close to your heart.
Players on loan
“The loans are the compensation to help the girls follow the path they can't do within the club. It’s a structured project that works, and we contonue with this plan. We have a structure where we follow the girls weekly, we have good feedback from all the teams. When I talk about young people I talk about them, there are values that we manage to transmit within the club.
Stimuli for the team
“When you play at Juventus you don't need any further stimuli, the girls are called to give answers like all of us. In the changes there are resetting of hierarchies, those who were perhaps calmer in her position must demonstrate that they can hold it and those who were a little further back want to show off. In this wake we need to consolidate. When results do not come after a long positive period, it is more difficult to experience defeats. We are talking about a group that in the last six years has participated in 19 competitions and won 12 of them, which has gone from last to ninth place in Europe. We have won more titles than all the other teams combined in the last seven years. I think any team that starts a cycle wants to start it like us. Being able to face these phases with the awareness of what has been done is a good help and is thanks to all those who have worked on this project in recent years.
A new cycle
“Doing better than this cycle will not be easy or obvious. More than the end of a cycle, it is the phase of a journey, in which there is a need to see some protagonists again. I wouldn't see an end and a beginning but a revisiting of the hierarchies in the group, women's football has changed a lot and we are entering a different context compared to the beginning.
The legacy of Montemurro
“Montemurro will remain very important at Juventus, the treble and the Champions League quarter-finals remain in our history. It gave us an international visibility that we didn't have, it gave a guarantee of internationality to our project. He showed us a football that we hadn't seen in certain aspects, he leaves a great legacy like Rita Guarino did. I hope that he can express himself elsewhere by finding conditions in which his value can be seen. When someone leaves a job better than they found it, they have done an excellent job and they have certainly left a better Juventus Women.
The Biella Stadium
“In Piedmont there are no environments and even fewer administrations like those of Biella that want to invest a lot. It's a stadium that's good for our size. I am grateful to the club that gave me the opportunity to find a stadium and I am grateful to the municipality of Biella. We decided not to ask for payment for the tickets so as not to incur additional expenses for the fan in addition to the trip. Who knows, in the future we might be able to reopen a project that exists but is on standby. Biella is a good place that willingly hosts us.
The gap to Roma
“Roma is making great progress, I think they will carry this cycle forward for a few more years. The ranking says that between us and them there is a difference of 8 points and we must give credit to them who are the locomotive of women's football at the moment."
Women’s Football
“Many matches are still not that attractive, we have this problem. We would need slightly better matches and slightly more open championships, more competition generates more interest and more interest generates investors. It is a very young movement compared to the others, it's just that we are in a hurry as we are a football country. If you put it into context, however, the journey is still long. The change in format? This year there were 10 teams and we had a team that didn't know if it would participate until August and one that wanted to withdraw after starting. Already with 10 we have to give ourselves a little adjustment, it's clear that we are few, but we have to do it when we are sure that whoever starts will finish and that we will bring a high level. I know that there are interesting projects in Serie B. We have a 7-year project, other teams even less. This is why I said that professionalism is extraordinary, but I would have done it more gradually. The federation believes a lot in this project and I am optimistic, but the timing must be accepted."
Lessons in Football
“I’ve learned a lot, I am grateful to these girls who brought to the surface the heart of the passion for this game. In men's football the rhythms are so fast that you have less time to understand, the search for perfection which also bored me a little. The girls made me understand why I dedicated 30 years of my life to football."
