“I cried after this goal,” Federico Balzaretti says. He is back in a moment, a decade ago, when he sported bleached blond hair kept in check by a top-knot.
The goal that led to his tears was the opener of the 2013 derby victory over Lazio when he met Francesco Totti’s cross with a crisp left-footed volley. “You have to win the derby, and I scored in it,” he says, his eyes lighting up as they did that day.
To celebrate the goal, Balzaretti vaulted the advertising boards and sprinted towards the Curva Sud at the Stadio Olimpico. Fists clenched, mouth open, tears flowing. “You run to the fans after scoring and it’s an unbelievable feeling. The fans remember me as a sort of legend for this goal.”
Now with neatly cropped brown hair and a tailored suit, the Udinese technical director is speaking to The Athletic in Rome, where he feels at home after three seasons playing for Roma from 2012 to 2015 before retiring. “Rome is special for a footballer because you breathe it from the first day in the taxi speaking about the club and the derby.”
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The derby goal was his last real footballing high. He retired aged 33 due to a hip injury and after 450 appearances — including for Torino, Juventus, Fiorentina and Palermo, in addition to 16 Italy caps — he looked to the future.
“I was lucky that my former sporting director Walter Sabatini (at Roma) believed in me after my injury,” Balzaretti says. “I understood what I wanted to do as a player, but not as a man, so it was important to perform like a manager.”
Four years as a loans manager included working alongside Frederic Massara and Ramon Rodriguez Verdejo, aka ‘Monchi’, who is now at Aston Villa. Next came two years as sporting director at Vicenza before the switch to Udinese.
“I was curious as a player, speaking to the coach, sporting director or general manager, about performance and data,” says the 42-year-old. “Now I have to manage all of these people, it’s a passion I try to give to the people around me.”
That passion will be needed in the final games of this season as Udinese, Serie A ever-presents since 1995, sail perilously close to the relegation zone. They are 15th, two points above 18th-place Frosinone.
The year Balzaretti scored that goal against Lazio in the derby was Udinese’s most recent in Europe after finishing 4th, 3rd and 5th between 2010 and 2013.
“My dream, and the club’s, is to get (them) back to Europe,” he says. Next up, they face Roma, who are fifth and pushing for a Champions League spot, on Sunday.
Udinese, Watford, the Pozzos and transfers…
On-field concerns will take centre stage in the coming weeks, but Udinese’s transfer plans remain a year-round priority for Balzaretti.
Unearthing footballing talent, developing it and then selling it on has been the Udinese model ever since the Pozzo family took charge in the mid-1980s.
Over three years from 1996 to 1999, the Brazilian centre-forward Marcio Amoroso was converted from a rough diamond to £24million ($30m at today’s rates) sale to Parma in 1999. Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez (lead image, centre) was sold to Barcelona for £22m in 2011 and World Cup-winner Rodrigo De Paul (lead image, left) cost Atletico Madrid £30m in 2021. More recently, Destiny Udogie (lead image, right) joined Tottenham for £17m in 2022 (he spent the 2022-23 season back on loan at Udinese) and this summer Beto went to Everton for an initial £21m. The club’s reputation for buying low and selling high remains strong.
“The club has a history and identity of scouting,” Balzaretti tells The Athletic. “That has always been the intention, from 30 years ago when we were the first to have a video room with cassettes to watch every match all around the world. We do the same now, but, of course, with innovation.”
The ethos is simple: “The club buys a raw player, and then we have an internal structure to improve every player. When you buy a player, you are buying 50 or 60 per cent of a player not 100 per cent.”
Though the method has developed alongside the explosion in data analysis over the past 30 years, Udinese’s recruitment process still leans on the eye test.
“We monitor a lot with data but, in the end, we trust in and respect the scout a lot and what they see live,” Balzaretti says. “Data tells us about the functionality of the player but the sensibility of the scout, watching the player’s behaviour on the pitch and the level of the match is more important.”
Balzaretti, who is married to the Italian ballet dancer Eleonora Abbagnato, says creating an “Italian mentality” makes it easier for their players to succeed abroad.
“It’s tactical, nutritional, physical, the video sessions, the language is different, so we ask a lot,” he says. “At the beginning, it’s not easy but when they grow, they understand and when they go to another club, they perform very well. We can see that De Paul and Nahuel Molina (who joined Atletico in 2022) are always in the line-up, while Udogie is performing very well at Tottenham.”
He also namechecks Beto too, albeit the striker battling it out in a relegation scrap with Everton. “(His) mentality is unbelievable, he is a very hard worker and his attitude on the pitch we knew would work in the Premier League. The fans love him because he is a player who came from the third division in Portugal. He is hungry, never happy and wants to improve every day.”
So who could be next from Udinese to make a big move? “Internally, now we have many talents: Lazar Samardzic (Serbian attacking midfielder, 22), Jaka Bijol (25, Slovenian centre-back) and Thomas Kristensen (Denmark Under-21 centre-back, 22) are all top talents.”
Balzaretti was speaking in Rome at the TransferRoom summit, an online recruitment platform Udinese used to find homes for two outgoing loanees this season. “It’s important, for players I use it a lot. In January, we did two transfers: Domingos Quina (to Vizela in Portugal) and Sekou Diawara (to Beerschot in Belgium),” he says.
Get the latest transfer news on The Athletic…
The club’s model of building talent fit for the Premier League is inextricably linked to sister club Watford, who had five unbroken years in England’s top division between 2015 and 2020. Balzaretti has a clear jurisdiction at Udinese, but the man overseeing everything is Gino Pozzo.
“Gino is the boss,” he says unequivocally. “He’s a great manager that I have information from every day. When Udinese called me, one of the things that helped me make this choice was Gino Pozzo. I improve a lot from him.”
Since Pozzo bought Watford in 2012 — then one of three clubs in the stable, with Granada, who were sold in 2017 — players have flowed freely between clubs. “There is a good synergy because, as a sporting director, I know very well Cristiano Giaretta (Watford’s former sporting director) and now Gianluca Nani (his replacement),” Balzaretti says.
“We have a good relationship, and (in) scouting, everyone has his separate department, but we share information when we talk about a player.”
It’s horses for courses when deciding who ends up where. “Sometimes, (one player) doesn’t work in one league but works very well in another league,” he says. Portuguese full-back Joao Ferreira was brought into Watford last season but has since thrived on loan at Udinese. “(He) is a player that wasn’t at the top in Watford and he performed very well here because he is more an Italian style of player.”
Udinese technical director Federico Balzaretti (Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Getty Images)
Nigeria goalkeeper Maduka Okoye also made the switch recently. “Maduka is a very important prospect that Watford bought and he’s performing very well in Udinese. So this kind of connection, when you have talent inside both rosters, can also (see a) change and maybe they perform very well.”
Udinese’s formation is traditionally 3-5-2, which Watford’s interim boss Tom Cleverley has switched to after the club’s former head coach Valerien Ismael’s preferred 4-3-3. “(Before signing) when I speak about the player, (we see if he) is more suited to a league, coach and also system. Some suit us and (some) also for Watford’s style of play. But we have a very good connection and relationship.”
Both clubs have hands-on hierarchies too.
“I remember my former sporting directors (when I was a player): Luciano Moggi (Juventus), Sabatini (Roma), Pantaleo Corvino (Fiorentina). They didn’t stay in the locker room every day. But we are in the locker room every day. I don’t know if it’s good or not, but we have to stay with the coach and the players day-by-day because the structure of the club is completely different (these days),” he says. “Now we have 10 departments we manage and the players need to be educated.”
According to Balzaretti, it is necessary rather than overbearing. “Now players have everything. If they want to see video clips of their opponent one minute before the match, they have it,” he says. “But they have less passion than us (when we played). So we have to invest time in that and to (make sure) they are curious to understand their performance, that of their opponent, the data. This is our challenge — and my challenge.”
It’s a collaboration. “It’s not just telling people to do this or that, they have to ask why (do I need) to do this? It’s tough to get to the top level, but staying there is much harder, and players need to understand what they are doing and focus every day.
“What is asked nowadays is more compared to the past. You have to be professional — not for two hours, but 10 hours every day because they have the tools to play until they are 36 or 37. You can have a much longer and more important career, but you have to be stronger mentally.”
Udinese and Watford keep a close eye on head coach recruitment too. Both clubs have made one transition this season: Ismael to Cleverley at Watford and Andrea Sottil to Gabriele Cioffi at Udinese. Cioffi is in his second tenure at the club having also managed Crawley Town in England’s fourth tier in 2018-19.
Gabriele Cioffi, left, is in his second spell as Udinese head coach (Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Getty Images)
“We already know him from before and he is doing very well. We are we are happy with our coach.
“It’s a difficult year for us, not simple, (after) changing 19 players in the summer,” says Balzaretti. “He likes to invest a lot of time in players, like me. Our role is to educate the player day to day, that is very important.”
Find the player, develop the player, educate the player — and then sell for a profit. As Udinese continue their fight to avoid the drop into Serie B, their transfer model remains central to all they do.
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(Top images: Alessandro Sabattini; Gabriele Maltinti; Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Images)
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