Will 2022 mark the boom of casual coaches? They are young, idealistic technicians who want to express their own style, following Pep's teachings
If I have to choose one of the most impactful images of the last round of the championship I say Thiago Motta celebrating with his staff on the pitch of the Diego Armando Maradona stadium. Spezia won 1-0 in Napoli, but it's not so much the Ligurians' victory that interests me, but their coach, Thiago Motta, who with the exemption label on his forehead went out and won on the road against the second in the table. And he did it in full Motta style, which is casual.
A turtleneck jumper, skinny jeans and total black trainers. A flashy watch on his wrist. Pissed off and shouting throughout the match, he took off his dark blue parka and stood with his silhouette walking up and down the bench, stylistically the opposite of his colleague Spalletti, covered in his Napoli tracksuit.
In Germany, Julian Nagelsmann, one of the world's most hipster coaches who has changed his style since joining Bayern, deserves a different speech. Or rather, we no longer know what his aesthetic coordinates are. The enfant prodige of the German tactical school switches from the woolen dolce vita to the club sweatshirt from Sunday to Sunday, and maybe on Wednesday in the cup he surprises you with a smart coat and trainers. Certainly Pellegrino Matarazzo, Freiburg's young coach of Italian origin, has a stricter code: always look dark (even the jeans) and over the jumper a flashy grey scarf, tendentially super knotted.
You could say that the new generations of coaches are - stylistically - all daughters of Pep Guardiola, forerunner of casual style on the bench with his scarves and Stone Island crew-neck jumpers. The City coach has been a game changer of style on the sidelines, with very personal choices and tastes such as the long Jardigan, nickname of his grey wool cardigan (which has officially become a cult object in Manchester). His is a strategy: Guardiola has canonised outfits as a form of communication towards the team and the public. If you're playing in the Champions League final, you choose haute couture for the prestige of the occasion; if you're on the bench on Sunday against any opponent, casual is a way of getting closer to the team and giving the players more freedom in their choices. At this level nothing is casual, not even the choice of tie.
Choosing to go to the bench in a tracksuit or a double-breasted suit makes a difference, and if the next gen coaches feel they are in this phase of innovation and expression of personality they will express it this way, each with their own jumper, their own trainers and their own style.
