MILAN – The day after Inter’s win over Bologna in the Coppa Italia, Roberto Gagliardini took to Facebook to post a short message. "Hard work is never wasted: you suffer, but you dream," wrote the Nerazzurri midfielder.
It is a fitting mantra for a young man who has negotiated quite the journey to get to San Siro. Each obstacle has been overcome through sheer hard work, a trait that has characterised Gagliardini ever since his first steps in the game, taken in the tranquil surroundings of Mariano al Brembo, where the only noise interrupting the quiet is the familiar tolling of the bell tower.
The place has changed little since the 1990s, when Gagliardini was laying the foundations of his future career. Just a few steps from the bell tower are two pitches: one grass, the other – smaller – in cement. A group of youngsters are hurtling about after a ball, shouting noisily and keeping the pace of the game sky high. It’s easy to imagine a young Gagliardini doing the same.
Before Bergamo – long before San Siro – this was the first pitch to surrender to the talents of Roberto Gagliardini. Scouted by Atalanta at the age of seven, Gagliardini was mentored by Mino Favini, the man who has helped forge countless talents at the club.
"As time has gone by, he’s completely changed on a physical level," explains Favini. "He’s now over six foot tall and his physique is very different to what it was when he was a kid. He was a striker in the beginning, and he’s still a very versatile player," explains Favini.
While his passion for scoring goals never left him, Gagliardini matured into a box-to-box playmaker, adopting a key role in the heart of the pitch, relishing the responsibility of having to dictate his own team’s play as well as breaking up that of the opposition. The young midfielder was developing well, but in order to serve his apprenticeship in the game he had to leave the familiar surroundings of Bergamo – not to mention his family.
Football took Gagliardini to Cesena, Spezia, Vicenza and finally back to Bergamo, where his early-season form in 2016/17 saw him attract the attention of the great and good of Italian football. Gagliardini was the thread knitting Atalanta’s play together, combining hard work with craft, stealing the hearts of a city that has always appreciated such values. His performances saw him rewarded with an international call-up. A few miles southwest, Inter sporting director Piero Ausilio – who had monitored him since his early years in the Atalanta youth set-up – began to formulate a plan.
By January Gagliardini was an Inter player. The step up is enough to make anyone feel the heat, yet Gagliardini has already won over the Nerazzurri faithful with impressive performances against Chievo, Bologna and Pescara. His character and calm have given Inter a boost in the middle of the park, yet there have also been plenty of forays forward and instances when Gagliardini has pushed wide to find space. The Italian seems perfectly at home under the hand of Stefano Pioli.
"I’m pleased he’s made an authoritative start," says Favini, who has known Gagliardini since he was a boy. Favini is also sure that Gagliardini is still the same lad who once played on the pitches near the bell tower, the sound of tolling overhead, his dreams of a future as a footballer underpinned by his understanding of the need to work hard for every ball.
It’s a combination that has served him well thus far. And, looking back of his story, it is hard not to feel a deep respect for Roberto Gagliardini – the young man who came from Mariano al Brembo all the way to San Siro and made it his own.
Bruno Bottaro
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