FIRST TEAM
01/22/2018

Pellegrino Matarazzo: "I got to know myself in New York"

On January 8th, TSG announced that Pellegrino Matarazzo would be joining the club as Julian Nagelsmann’s new assistant coach. Just a day later, the 40-year-old was training with the TSG stars and he has since been involved in two Bundesliga games from the bench. We interviewed the US-born coach about Julian Nagelsmann, his first impressions of the team, his football philosophy and his impressive CV.

Pellegrinio, when you came from Nuremberg to work at the TSG academy in 2017, could you have envisaged being part of the first team’s coaching staff just six months later?

Pellegrino Matarazzo: "No, but obviously it’s come as a pleasant surprise – I was very happy to become part of Julian’s team. He sent me a message asking if I could see myself as the assistant coach, and obviously my answer was yes. Everything moved very swiftly from that point on: Talks were held with Alexander Rosen and it became clear very quickly that it would all work out. Now I’m there, among the first-team staff – it all went by in a flash."

What did you make of your first two Bundesliga games as part of the team, away to Bremen then at home to Leverkusen?

Matarazzo: "I was in study-mode; I wanted to pick up on everything. There were so many new and positive things to learn, the noise-levels were astounding. At first I held back from shouting on at the players and tried to just pass my observations to Julian, but I saw how difficult it was at times for Julian to have verbal contact with his players. At one point he tried to tell Lukas Rupp something, who was only 20 yards or so away from him; he shouted several times, but Lukas simply didn’t hear him. That was all new for me – at youth level your players can always hear you.  

As a player, you were in the Oberliga and Regionalliga for a long time. Was there room to progress? Or was this the highest attainable level for you?

Matarazzo: "There was often interest from division two, but I suffered from a heavy knee injury early on in my career, and I never reached the same level again after the operation. After the second and third operations it was no longer a possibility. I was close to cutting ties with Germany and returning the USA, but then the offer from Nuremberg came in, to help out the reserve team as an experienced player and at the same time start my career as a coach – I accepted the offer."

You’ve known your current boss a little longer: Back at the football coaching school in Hennef, you shared a room with Julian Nagelsmann. Did you have a good understanding of each other from the start?

Matarazzo: "Yes, it was no coincidence that we shared a room, we already knew each other – we’d played against each other on numerous occasions in the U19 Bundesliga. Him for TSG, me for Nuremberg. Even then, we had respect for each other’s work."   

The head coach was full of praise for his team: He said the players gave you an excellent reception, just as they had him two years ago, and were all open to new ideas. How was your first week?  

Matarazzo: "I feel good - I'm getting to know the team and the team behind the team better all the time. I’m not someone who wants to make a big entrance; I want to find my place here – that’s the only way I’ll be able to offer anything. On the one hand, you build relationships on a personal level, but on the other, and perhaps more so as colleagues. The players need to understand that I can help them make progress. This is easier with youngsters than with professionals, because these lads have obviously already got lots of experience under their belt and know a lot about the game. I do think, however, that we are cooperating productively. It’s an exciting task for us all."

In Hennef at the coaching school you spoke to Julian a lot about football…

Matarazzo: "Yes, that’s correct. Our talks were usually related to a specific topic on our course. The important this, we were always on the same wavelength."

New players at TSG often need a little more time to adapt to Julian Nagelsmann’s training methods. What are your first impressions?

Matarazzo: "I can understand that – the training sessions are very good and demanding, especially psychologically. There are lots of methods of play with individual rules to pay attention to and, often, different things are asked of the players that aren’t part of your every-day training session – things that no player is familiar with. Furthermore, you have to consider the fact that players have their own habits: Julian tries to break these, because he has his own special ideas. This asks a lot of the players and improves them."  

Who or what shaped you as a coach?

Matarazzo: "Naturally, I picked up a lot of things from my former managers. When I then became a coach myself, I developed my own individual philosophy. Obviously, it requires external contributions, but what you make of these and how you synchronize these with your own visions is the key. I always ask myself the question: ‘Who am I and does this suit me?'"

You have Italian roots, you grew up in the USA and have been living in Germany for many years now. Do you feel like an American, an Italian or a German?

Matarazzo:  "I would say I’m a German-Italian-American: Before I came to Germany, people in the US saw me as an Italian, vice versa, while here, I’m seen as an Italian-American. It’s not so important to me, I’m an open person and I don’t like to think of everyone in their boxes.

After graduating from high school with a first, you studied at the Elite University, Columbia, in the heart of New York. Did the Big Apple contribute to your openness as a person?   

Matarazzo: "I arrived in New York alone as a 17-year-old, it was my first time away from home, away from an extremely conservative upbringing. I found myself in this anonymous cosmopolitan city, where you never meet the same person twice. New York did heavily impact my personal development, because it offers everything, and who you are doesn’t matter there. This city lets everyone be who they are. I really got to know myself as a person; I realised who I was and who I wanted to be."

Not everyone gets into Columbia. Was your high school grade enough?

Matarazzo: "No, that wasn’t enough on its own. You have to show outstanding performance in another area. For me, that was football that opened to door to this fantastic university. I am very grateful to this day that I was able to study there."

High school grade 1.0, Applied Mathematics at an Ivy League University. How did you get into football?

Matarazzo:  "There’s a very simple explanation for that. It’s all about my passion for the game – I was heavily influenced by my father. He was a big Napoli fan in the days of Diego Maradona, and I caught the football fever off him. I played football while I studied as well and just wanted to try my luck as a pro after that. I didn’t want to spend my life wondering whether I could have made it as a footballer. That’s why I decided on football as opposed to investment banking, for example. I had offers in that field after graduating, but I gave all my time to football, that’s what I’m like. Nothing less than 100% is enough." 

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