Giovanni Sartori, Realizing Semenjana Club's Wildest Dreams

Giovanni Sartori is the brain behind Bologna's success in the 2023-2024 season.

SUPRIYANTO

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No one dared to imagine that Bologna at the start of this season would win one of the tickets to appear in the 2024-2025 Champions League. Apart from that, "I Rossoblu" also has the opportunity to finish in the top three zone which will be their highest ranking in the Italian League since 1967.

The majority of parties agree that Bologna's phenomenal journey in the 2023-2024 competition is the result of the skill of Coach Thiago Motta. Together with Motta, players whose abilities have been underestimated have consistently performed exceptionally well. They include Joshua Zirkzee, Riccardo Calafiori, Remo Freuler, Sam Beukema, and Lewis Ferguson.

However, apart from Motta's ability to bring out the maximum performance from his players and provide a conducive dressing room, there is also a big role behind the scenes from Bologna's Sports Director Giovanni Sartori (67). Without Sartori, Bologna will not be able to realize their wildest dreams of appearing in the Champions League next season.

My father has a great passion for Bologna. When a big opportunity to come to Bologna arose, I immediately took it as my moment to do something good for this club.

Although he joined Bologna since May 2022 after being directly asked by Bologna President Joey Saputo, Sartori actually had a long attachment with I Rossoblu. Born and raised in the city of Lodi, located in the Lombardy region of Italy, Sartori certainly knows football thanks to the two biggest teams in the area, AC Milan and Inter Milan.

That was also the reason why Sartori joined the AC Milan Academy in the early 1970s. He then pursued a professional career as a footballer with Milan in 1974. Playing as a center forward, Sartori only had the opportunity to appear in seven matches in the 1974-1975 Italian League edition.

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However, before donning the Milan uniform, Sartori had received doctrine from his father to become a supporter of Bologna. Every season in the 1960s, Sartori revealed, his father would always take him to watch I Rossoblu matches at San Siro Stadium when they played against Milan or Inter.

Sartori was also a witness to Bologna's success in winning the Scudetto title in the 1963-1964 season. This is the seventh Italian League trophy and the last one Bologna has won to date. Sartori also remembers well his idol players in the Bologna team at that time, such as Ezio Pascutti and Marino Perani.

"My father had a great passion for Bologna. When a great opportunity came to Bologna, I immediately saw this as my chance to do something good for the club," said Sartori to Serie A TV earlier this year.

After Bologna secured one of the five tickets to the 2024-2025 Champions League from Italy, Sartori is like reviving his late father's dream. The last time Bologna competed in the Champions League, specifically in the qualifying round of the European club competition, occurred in the 1964-1965 season when he was just 7 years old.

I said “no” to that request. I feel very good at Bologna, so I will stay here.

Sartori's immense love for I Rossoblu is what makes him reluctant to leave the club, despite receiving many offers to move to big clubs in Italy this summer. One of the clubs seriously interested in him is Napoli. Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis has even contacted Sartori directly to ask him to anchor himself in the city of Naples.

"I said 'no' to that request. "I feel very good at Bologna, so I will stay here," said Sartori as reported by Corriere dello Sport, earlier this week.

Redemption

Before leading Bologna to penetrate the Champions League, Sartori also always managed to bring two youth teams he had previously led to break into the most prestigious inter-club competition in the world. Sartori demonstrated his great instinct in handling the team when he brought Chievo Verona from the Serie C team in Italy to qualify for the 2006-2007 Champions League.

He was a player at Chievo from July 1984 until he retired at the end of June 1990. After retiring, Sartori accepted an offer to become an assistant coach for Chievo in Serie C for the 1990-1991 season. One season later, he filled the first sports director position in Chievo's history. He held the position until July 2014.

Starting from August 2014, Sartori served as the director of sports for Atalanta. He assisted Atalanta Coach Gian Piero Gasperini in breaking into the top three zone of the Italian League for two consecutive seasons, 2018-2019 and 2019-2020.

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He also helped "Sang Dewi", the nickname for Atalanta, make its debut in the Champions League. Atalanta's journey in the 2019-2020 Champions League was halted in the quarter-finals.

His brilliant career as a sports director for three mid-tier Italian clubs is like redemption from his mediocre career as a player. After breaking into Milan's first team in 1974-1975, Sartori mostly served as a substitute attacker and warmed the bench.

His professional career, which lasted for more than 15 years, was mostly spent in Serie B and Serie C with small clubs such as Sampdoria, Cavese, Arezzo, Ternana, and Chievo Verona. During his playing days, Sartori only made nine appearances in Italy's Serie A.

Traditional method

As a technical director, he made good use of his experience playing in lower-tier Italian competitions to find players who were not on the radar of big clubs. Despite the ease of technology in monitoring players, Sartori is known to prefer traditional methods in player scouting.

There is another dimension that you can see by directly monitoring a player's performance.

Instead of hiring talent scouts or relying on player monitoring applications, Sartori prefers to directly approach the players on his target list. Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, he insisted on personally watching the players from the stadium stands.

”There is another dimension that you can see by directly monitoring a player's performance. Defenders, for example, you need to see how their movements and responses read the game," said Sartori regarding his method as reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport.

On the other hand, Sartori was also nicknamed "The Snake". This was due to his sharp senses and persistent attitude when he wanted to recruit a player into his team.

”We must not ignore Sartori's extraordinary work for the team in the transfer market. "Along with Beppe Moratta, Sartori is the best manager in Italy at the moment," said Gianluca Pagliuca, Bologna legend, as reported by Football-Italia.

In the 2024-2025 season, Bologna may be left by Thiago Motta who is one step away from filling the position of Juventus coach. However, their path to creating new golden ink in Europe is still preserved due to Sartori's loyalty.

We should not overlook Sartori's exceptional work for the team in the transfer market. Alongside Beppe Moratta, Sartori is the best manager in Italy at the moment.

Born: Lodi (Italy), March 31, 1957

Position: Sports Director of Bologna FC