Vincenzo Montella, technical commissioner of Türkiyegave an interview to the Turkish medium Tivibu Spor. Below are some main passages from his statements: “I can say that I am becoming one of you (Turks, ed.). I have reached a point where I love this country so much.”
Then he talks about the state of health of the Turkish national team: “All the improvements we have made make us happy, but we don’t want to stop here. We climbed 16 positions in the FIFA rankings last year: we have to give everything to continue like this. The ultimate goal could be to reunite Istanbul! You know that we they are fans of various different clubs, if we unite them we will be even stronger together.” Then he talks about criticism: “If you are a coach of a national team, you must be open to receiving criticism. But you must not be affected by it, you cannot please everyone.” And again, he was asked to choose an ideal center forward from the Superlig: “If I had the opportunity, I would like one of the best penalty area attackers for the national team. Like Icardi”.
And would Montella play as a starter in this team? The coach jokes: “No, I wouldn’t let him play because he’s too short.” To which he returns to Euro 2024: “The match against Holland will remain a regret for me, it reminded me of Euro 2000 when against Italy we were 1-0 up in the 90th minute and in the end we lost 2-1”. There is also room for some considerations on Kenan Yildiz, Juventus striker: “Kenan is a player who is really mentally well set up. Wearing the number 10 shirt for Juventus is a great responsibility, he is a talented player both inside and away from the area. He can still grow a lot, but he should not only score wonderful goals but also bad ones. This can really make a big difference.” He concludes with the objectives (“We want to qualify for the next World Cup”) and dismissing the rumors about contacts with Manchester United: “I don’t give much importance to chatter and speculation. I don’t like talking about myself, I’m not someone with a big ego. If If this were true, the first person to realize it would be the president of the Federation and then the manager. I’m only focused on the national team.”