The first FIFA World Cup and Champions League winner to step up on the Garden City, Marco Materazzi wowed a sizeable number of crowd who came to watch him at the Bangalore Football Stadium.
Inter Milan believes in developing football in new markets. So along with Barbara Biggi, Head of Marketing and International Business, Marco’s purpose of visit is to announce the start of the AVA INTER Milan Football Academy, which will be functional from June 1, at Hosur.
He is quite knowledgeable, when it comes to Indian football - follows I-League, aware that a team from Bangalore has won the recently concluded I-League. Also, he is well informed about India Super League (ISL) as he was contacted last year, and he might take this opportunity to join ISL.
Talking to the press, he opined that the development of the game will grow to be at par with cricket in India, and the initial steps have already been taken.
“Looking at the smile of the kids at the stadium, the passion for football at the grassroots pretty apparent, it is important to carry on forward!” said the scorer of the FIFA 2006 World Cup final.
And what are the chances of Italy in the FIFA WC in Brazil?
“Not easy for my team, the first match against England is important for us. But then we are Italy, winner of four times FIFA World Cup champions, we’ll play to achieve the best!”, he adds, “So far no European team have won World Cup in Latin America, at least this has been the tradition, hopefully, we’ll break the tradition!”
Speaking about Italy notoriety in the game inside the country, which had never affected their World Cup campaign so far. Quick comes a philosophical reply from the Azzurri.
“When you are born, you come to the world with a dream, to play the World Cup, to win it, and so on. I might not even have the technical qualities like the other players that have won the World Cup, but I had a strong passion and commitment for the game, to win the World Cup. If there is passion, corruption, bad governance, etc., on does not influence the game!”
Barbara Biggi, Head of Marketing and International Business who doubled up as Materazzi’s interpreter answered the question on how they are planning to make inroads to India, considering Football as a business in this country is not a viable choice.
"We have no plans to create an Inter Milan team that would take part in ISL, like Atletico Madrid, but we have plans to create players for future.”
“India is a sleeping giant, we know that football is taking a very important position in the country. We got a strong grassroots program, per UEFA ours is the best. Along with our partners, we would like to grow the level of grassroots here, and create and spread the passion for football in the country.”
She adds, “We believe there is a good environment to invest sports for kids, spread the Inter-way of playing football, and off course to increase out fan base, starting from Bangalore.”
Inter Milan believes in developing football in new markets. So along with Barbara Biggi, Head of Marketing and International Business, Marco’s purpose of visit is to announce the start of the AVA INTER Milan Football Academy, which will be functional from June 1, at Hosur.
He is quite knowledgeable, when it comes to Indian football - follows I-League, aware that a team from Bangalore has won the recently concluded I-League. Also, he is well informed about India Super League (ISL) as he was contacted last year, and he might take this opportunity to join ISL.
Talking to the press, he opined that the development of the game will grow to be at par with cricket in India, and the initial steps have already been taken.
“Looking at the smile of the kids at the stadium, the passion for football at the grassroots pretty apparent, it is important to carry on forward!” said the scorer of the FIFA 2006 World Cup final.
And what are the chances of Italy in the FIFA WC in Brazil?
“Not easy for my team, the first match against England is important for us. But then we are Italy, winner of four times FIFA World Cup champions, we’ll play to achieve the best!”, he adds, “So far no European team have won World Cup in Latin America, at least this has been the tradition, hopefully, we’ll break the tradition!”
Speaking about Italy notoriety in the game inside the country, which had never affected their World Cup campaign so far. Quick comes a philosophical reply from the Azzurri.
“When you are born, you come to the world with a dream, to play the World Cup, to win it, and so on. I might not even have the technical qualities like the other players that have won the World Cup, but I had a strong passion and commitment for the game, to win the World Cup. If there is passion, corruption, bad governance, etc., on does not influence the game!”
Barbara Biggi, Head of Marketing and International Business who doubled up as Materazzi’s interpreter answered the question on how they are planning to make inroads to India, considering Football as a business in this country is not a viable choice.
"We have no plans to create an Inter Milan team that would take part in ISL, like Atletico Madrid, but we have plans to create players for future.”
“India is a sleeping giant, we know that football is taking a very important position in the country. We got a strong grassroots program, per UEFA ours is the best. Along with our partners, we would like to grow the level of grassroots here, and create and spread the passion for football in the country.”
She adds, “We believe there is a good environment to invest sports for kids, spread the Inter-way of playing football, and off course to increase out fan base, starting from Bangalore.”
