When you have a passion for sport and a globetrotting spirit in your DNA, your adventure collection can be so rich in experiences that there are so many tales you can tell! Regardless of whether they have been positive or negative, every single one can teach you something and must be kept in mind!

Andrea Maccoppi followed in his father’s footsteps, he grew up with an important and “heavy” surname at the same time; we shouldn’t think that things are simpler, as a matter of fact in these cases you have to prove your worth even more because people always compare you to your father.

But if you grow with values and with the awareness of having to show how much you’re worth, getting in the game, sooner or later you’ll find the way and this is what happened to Andrea, son of Stefano Maccoppi, today coach and former footballer with 250 matches played in Serie A.

Andrea Maccoppi has just experienced the best moment of his footballing career, winning the Challenge League (Swiss Serie B championship) with the Servette FC, gaining the promotion in the Swiss top division: the Super League!

“A great joy in front of an amazing crowd and, in addition, arrived against Lausanne, a team for which I also wore the captain’s armband. Winning with this jersey is even more prestigious because Servette FC is one of the most important clubs in Swiss football, with 17 league titles and a great president, who took over the club after it went bankrupt twice in recent years, bringing it back to the honors it deserves”.

THE FACT

…”It’s an advantage to have a dad like mine who gave me a sports education and passed on to me his professionalism, explaining me how the locker room is lived, giving me valuable advice on how to deal with all the situation that this world has”…

Looking back at your career, which are the milestones?

“I was in Piacenza, after having debuted and having played on loan in the third series, I ended up on the fringe of the club… Once the contract ended, I found myself without a team and I agreed to get back into the game going for a tryout in Locarno; it went well and I started my new football career in Switzerland… And not only!”.

Indeed! Beautiful experience with the Vaduz jersey, a club playing in Switzerland and in Europe as a Liechtenstein team

“Exactly, having won the Liechtenstein national cup we had access to the Europa League preliminary round, even though we played in the Swiss Challenge League. With Vaduz FC it’s been a nice period of my career: playing two matches in a European cup is unique and fascinating! Unfortunately we left the event with two draws because of the away goal rule, but the unique emotion and magical atmosphere that only international matches give you will always remain”.

Then the experience with Mr. Zambrotta

“It was his first experience as a coach and it was an honor for me to be trained by him; a world champion and above all a man of extraordinary humility … And then on the field he used to destroy us during the training matches, so much that we, the soccer players, seemed the old ones”.

You already mentioned Lausanne

“Two different years, the first one with the successful relegation fight and the great satisfaction of winning in Basel, beating the strongest team in the league, and the second one, instead, ended with the relegation… They are always important experiences which help you to grow and, as luck would have it, with Servette FC we won the championship against my former team”.

Life in Switzerland

“I’ve been living here for nine years and to tell the truth I still haven’t got used to it, everything is beautiful and organized but I don’t understand the supermarket that closes at 7 pm or the restaurant that doesn’t serve you dinner after 9:30 pm… Also the cost of living is very high, consider that a coffee can cost you as much as 3.50 euros! Then, for other things, everything is fantastic: from the very streamlined bureaucracy to the neatness and the great sense of civic duty. Being here I had the opportunity to learn three languages such as French, German and English and now thanks to the many Spanish mates I’ve had in recent years, my Spanish is improving too. Another thing I’m very happy about is that finally since two years now I have my family here with me: I spent the first seven years away from my wife and my two children but now they’re here with me and it feels great”.

Switzerland is divided into 26 federal states called cantons and each year the national holiday celebrates the birth of the Confederacy, dated 1 August 1921; each canton has its own parliament, its own government and jurisdictional bodies. There are four official languages: German, Italian, French and Romansh.

“I lived in different cantons and, as I am, I found myself well everywhere, every place left me something, even if there are differences in both lifestyle and football”.

The difference in language and culture is also reflected in football:

“Exactly! In Italian-speaking Switzerland football is more similar to ours: tactics, game organization and strategy are the key points and that’s where Italian coaches like Cavasin go to work. In the German part the training is at 300 per hour, the game is more rigid and schematic and you have to stick to the plans, limiting too much the creativity of a player; in the French part football is experienced in a softer way and the offensive game is preferred through possession of the ball, I would say similar to Spain for example”.

And which culture do you prefer?

“You have to take the best from all three: the Italian tactical organization, the German professionalism and management and the proactive French football because I believe that the one who has more balance is the one who has more results”.

Your father Stefano: what about his role?

“Having a soccer player and a coach as father could be a problem for many because he unintentionally loads the son with expectations and the experts inevitably compare them… I can say that it’s an advantage to have a dad like mine who gave me a sports education and passed on to me his professionalism, explaining me how the locker room is lived, giving me valuable advice on how to deal with all the situation that this world has. Even today he still fills me with suggestions and I treasure them, but then, as he always did, he lets me walk my path and make my choices without ever affecting them… I thank him so much”.

Andrea’s tomorrow?

“I would like to bring Servette back in Europe and I’m convinced that with this club and these fans it can be done; then one day I would like to get back to play in Italy… Never say never in life but now I enjoy this championship victory, I’ll celebrate this fantastic success and then immediately head to the next Super League season”.

Football with its joys and sorrows makes you live unique and always humanly enriching experiences, if it then leads you to live different places and cope with different cultures then the aspects to appreciate become endless and certainly for Andrea the victory of the championship with Servette FC is just the tip of that iceberg that we tried to discover and explore a little deeper today.

Thanks Andrea for telling us a bit about yourself and a big good luck for your ongoing career!

ANDREA MACCOPPI’S COORDINATES:

Andrea Maccoppi (Milan, 22nd January 1987).

PALMARES:
• 2 LIECHTENSTEIN CUPS (Vaduz 2012/2013, 2013/2014)
• 2 SWISS CHALLENGE LEAGUE (Vaduz 2013/2014, Servette FC 2018/2019)

 translation by Matteo Santuari – SOCCEROAD press staff