Federico Baschirotto, defender of Leccegave an interview to the magazine Men’s Health: “When you have worked in the fields you no longer complain because you have to train. Unloading a pig from a truck is harder than lifting a barbell…”.
Then he continues, talking about tattoos: “Nobody, not now or ever. They’ve been asking me this for years and I always answer the same way: you can’t touch the body, have you ever seen a Ferrari with stickers?”. And then space for the family: “That’s all. I have the number 6 on my shirt because there are six of us at home: dad, mom and four brothers. And now there’s also Marika: my girlfriend, who lives with me in Lecce. That that I am, I also owe it to her…”. He continues by talking about his routine: “It’s always been the same for years, wake up at 7, breakfast and gym before training with the team. In Lecce I had the warehouse worker give me the keys… Now I’ve become my own athletic trainer “.
Has any coach ever told Baschirotto that he is exaggerating with his physical appearance? He says: “It happened in the past, when I played in the minor leagues. Not now: football is much more physical: you train with GPS to understand how much you sprint, how many kilometers you do. It may be bad to say, but now the technique alone is no longer enough. Everyone needs muscles, to a greater or lesser extent. I also bench press 140 kilos, but I go to the gym to always be more capable on the pitch to have a physique like this… Diet? The same as anyone who plays sports at a high level.
Baschirotto also focuses on the long apprenticeship he had to undergo: “I think this is the greatest strength I have. 97-98 percent of people stop at the first difficulty, I’m in the other 2 percent. I arrived in Serie A at 26 years old, but I got there. Even though many didn’t believe it. At 13 I was rejected by Chievo, at 18 I went through a lot, but every step was a lever to strengthen me and start again from down to up. I have always been my own mental coach. Luckily I also had those close to me: my family, my agent Guido Gallovich, a fundamental figure for my career.”
He then returns to his debut in Serie A, in which he shone in marking Lukaku: “Great excitement, my moment had finally come. I was like a child at the amusement park, I didn’t care who I found myself in front of. It was revenge after everything I had to go through to get there.” He then returns to his peasant origins: “When you saw your father return home destroyed by fatigue you understand that life is not all roses and flowers and you cannot complain about too hard training. And if someone will be stimulated by my story I can only be proud of it.”