Good morning everyone! New episode of Drive&Talk, Today we're with Paco Mazzocchi. Hi everyone, guys! Good morning, Paco! How are you? Good, good, thanks. All good. So today, as usual in this format, you'll take us to work, we’ll go to work together. Today the training session is in the afternoon, but usually what’s your morning routine like? So from when you wake up until you arrive at the training center. The classic one, always the same routine. So we... I, more than anything, wake up around eight, almost always. Then it might vary, 08:20/08:30, but it’s always around that time. I wake up, I immediately take a hot shower, then the last 2 or 3 minutes of the shower I make it really cold. - Ah, that jolt of adrenaline... Jolt of adrenaline! A nice cold shower to wake myself up properly, then I have breakfast... If training is in the afternoon, I have breakfast at home, otherwise I have it at the training ground. A little kiss to my daughter before leaving and off I go. But you, who are super careful, super precise about everything you eat... - Breakfast? What do you eat for breakfast? - Well, it varies... Breakfast needs variety. Sometimes I have eggs and rye bread. Other times I have a bit of ricotta always on rye bread with berries and a bit of honey. - Ah, nice. Toasted bread? - Yes, toasted. Very, very good. Sometimes instead I go for some Greek yogurt plain with five grams of honey and a bit of dark chocolate... Five. Not four, not six… Five. Five! Because even there you need to measure, you need to be careful. Basically, eating is a job too. Especially that! Especially because if you want to stay at this level, nutrition is super important. Then off to the training ground and... after practice how do you like spending the rest of your day? You have your daughter Clarissa who’s still little... After training I jump in the car, really tired, because training isn’t just the central session but we also work before training and after training. When I get in the car I go straight home, I live very close to the training ground. I go home, pick up my daughter for a bit because I haven’t seen her for half a day. I play a little with her... Then sometimes I start studying more about the next opponent. Maybe we’ve watched a video during the week... - So you go and dig into it more. - Yes, I go and dig into it more, or I go watch some of the players we’ll be facing on Sunday, their characteristics... Sometimes, instead, I work out at home. Maybe I do some stretching, or something useful for the body. I switch it up every day, other times I do breathing work for the diaphragm. Most of us breathe a bit with the chest. Instead you need to bring air down to the lower belly so you can take in a lot more air and breathe better, It’s something you can train, you have to train it. We talked about your daughter Clarissa, what was it like becoming a dad? It was such a beautiful emotion... And I often have debates with my wife about this topic because—I'll tell you this anecdote— when my daughter was born I wasn’t in the hospital. I’ll explain why: the birth was scheduled for the morning... We go to the hospital because she was supposed to have surgery and the doctor says “don’t worry, just wait here, it’ll take some time.” I had left the car at the training center. My wife gave birth downtown, in Vomero. So I tell my wife “since it’ll still take a while, I’ll go grab the car real quick and come back.” Sure, makes sense, the car might come in handy. And what happened? While I was going to get the car, my father-in-law calls me and says “she’s born.” What...how?! I get to the hospital, everyone was there waiting for me and my daughter was already born. She was in a rush, she wanted to meet you guys. What kind of dad do you want to be for Clarissa? What are your goals as a parent? What kind of person do you want her to be? First of all, I want to be an important point of reference for her, try to make her understand what difficulties she may encounter and try to help her get used to those difficulties. Maybe she could have, because of the work I do, a more comfortable life than others. But that shouldn't change her dreams, what she aspires to over the years, what she might have compared to other kids... Understanding the value of having those things, not taking them for granted. Exactly, because what I went through I wouldn’t want her to go through as well, because there were both bad and good things during my childhood, throughout my life, but I’d like her to live it in a more comfortable way, while also helping her understand the importance of those things. Also because those are the things that made you the man you are today, with the values you have and promote today. The rough patches in life exist, but in the end they teach us something and the important thing is to grasp the positive lessons. Yes, the same lessons and values that my parents passed on to me. They helped me understand what the truly important things in life are. So, starting right from there, How was your childhood and your first kicks of a ball? Your aspirations? Tell us a bit about that part of your past. Let’s start by saying that if you’re born in Naples, it’s hard as a child, to choose any other sport. One way or another you end up playing football, whether you know how to play or not. Except for me. I don’t know why, but not me, though that’s another story. But yeah, generally speaking, it’s something everyone in Naples loves. And since I was a kid, I’ve always been passionate about football. I remember always having a ball at my feet, from the moment I woke up at eight in the morning until going to sleep with the ball in bed. One day I’d wake up and want to do ten juggles with my right foot, or ten with my left, another day I wanted to balance the ball on my head for five minutes straight. These are the things that help you grow over time and increase your passion for the sport. Obviously, when you're a kid, you do it with passion, and that's one thing, but when it becomes a real job, it’s a totally different thing. Of course. Then reaching the level you're at today, considering that in your career you've gone through all the steps, from Serie D up to Serie A, it's the result of sacrifice, right... My career started in Serie D, not counting the youth academies, which were still important moments that helped me grow, that was very fulfilling. I mean, when you come from the bottom and manage to reach this level, you also try to be a point of reference for other players who start out in those same lower leagues and want to make it to the top. But the point is that just wanting it isn’t enough... You have to actually move and do all the things that allow you to compete at that level. You can’t settle. During my career, I gave up on a lot of things, during my youth... Because you know, when you're younger, there are all those distractions that might lead you to have fun, like going out partying with your friends, or staying out a little later at night. Even just going on vacation with your friends or, on a Saturday night, having a sandwich at the pub, while instead you’re on retreat. I never went out partying with friends, maybe once or twice, max, I did it during my career. Because I was always thinking about the next day, and that I had to train properly. I focused on sleeping and eating well. I kind of took that attention to the extreme, but the point is, if you want something, just wanting it isn’t enough, you have to work for it. And your desire to reach that dream was stronger than the sadness of giving up certain things. Usually, we don't look back at everything we've done. In my past, there were days when I had to sleep covered with jackets because I had no money. - Were you far from your family? - I was far from home, I had no one. But it’s all those things, those details, that when you reach this level no one sees, but you remember them. And the important thing is not to forget. You know what you've been through, what you've endured, to get to this level. All the sacrifices you made, all those days when maybe you had to... Sometimes I had to pretend to have a headache so I wouldn’t go out with my friends for ice cream, because I didn’t have the money. But nobody sees that. Only you know it, you know? But you can’t go around telling these stories every time someone tells you that you’re lucky. No, of course, you don’t have to justify yourself to anyone about that. You know, now I’m doing an interview and I’m talking about it because it might be helpful to others, or maybe to someone starting out on this journey, to understand what it takes to succeed. - Of course, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. - It’s not all sunshine and rainbows but you also can’t give up at the first obstacle, because this world is full of all kinds of challenges. But at the same time, if you manage to get where you want to go, you take a lot of satisfaction from it. You had every right when you didn’t have blankets, you didn’t have the chance to sleep warm when you slept with jackets on, to say "you know what? I'm going back home to my family." It was easy, it was very easy to quit... And it would have been human to quit... Yes, yes, it was also human, but many people who know me well would contact me and tell me, when I played in Serie D, "What are you doing there?", "Go back home," "Go work, you'll earn more." But I was never influenced by them. And did your family encourage you to keep chasing your dream? I was really very fortunate to have my parents, and also my two brothers, who pushed me to never give up. I am the youngest in the family, I'm the youngest among the brothers, and they gave me so much strength pushing me to ask myself, if I hadn’t gone down this path, what would my life have been like. Having my two brothers as a reference, I knew that if I hadn’t played football another life would have awaited me. So I always tried to push my football life forward, beyond the obstacles, so that if I didn’t reach these levels I would have no regrets. No regrets, of course. So to that little Pasquale who chased that dream, if you could go back in time and meet him, what would you tell him? Well, first of all, I’d compliment him because he was very strong. And because every now and then, you know, I reflect on what that kid, that guy, went through, and I give him a lot of compliments. Because then... over the course of life You tend to lose a bit of that hunger you had as a kid. And when it happens you go back in your mind to the past, remember what you had to face, and that hunger comes back. So I give a lot of compliments to that guy, because he was really, really strong. And you can tell him “Pasqualino, we made it!” We made it, yes, because I can’t say we didn’t make it seeing where we started from. So we made it, yes... - But there’s still so much to do. - There’s still so much to do... And it’s that hunger that... Actually, it’s him telling you “yes Pasquale, but don’t stop”. Don’t give up. You made it, but you always have to stay on top. For those who don’t know you well... I’m lucky to see you and talk to you often, and I know you have some particular passions. I can think of three. Drawing, even though I’ve never had the chance to see one of your drawings, but I know, they’ve told me, that you draw very well. Books. Because every time we go on a trip, I always see you with a different book, and so I’d like to explore that part. And a new passion, photography, which seems to have started recently. Actually, I’ve had it for a while. Yes, yes, I’ve had it for a while, because being a very family-oriented person, I’m someone who likes to spend time with family, so this passion grew when my daughter was born. Because I want to have many memories of her. When she grows up and is 20/30 years old, I want to show her all the photos from when she was born, all the way to her 30, 40, or 50 years. Freezing moments from the past in time... Yes, yes, I like it. I’m making an album of her to show her in the future. Nice, nice! What about drawing? I’ve always had a passion for drawing. It’s a passion my father passed down to me, ever since I was in elementary school. I had a great relationship with my teachers, the art professors. Because they saw me drawing, they really liked the way I drew, so they gave me assignments that were different from the other students. It’s a passion I’ve tried to nurture over time. I also took hyperrealism lessons, it’s not easy... It’s not easy but, you know, when I have some time, drawing relaxes me and I do it, it gives me so much calm. - So hyperrealism... do you like doing portraits? - With which technique, pencil? You work a lot with chiaroscuro, but you have to have a lot, a lot of patience. In hyperrealism, when you do portraits, you have to draw even the pores of the skin, so it’s a very slow process. I’ll ask you a question, maybe the answer is “no,” but you, who have so many tattoos, have you ever tattooed something you drew yourself? Actually, I tattooed myself. Because being good at drawing, the idea of tattooing really intrigued me. I wanted to learn to tattoo too, but it’s two completely different things, drawing on paper and tattooing on skin. So I used myself as a guinea pig, by myself, and I did, let’s say, some damage, which I later had fixed by tattoo artist friends. But then I gave up on this path because it wasn’t for me. But it’s another experience to put on the scoreboard. Yes, yes. Instead, I rephrase the reading, do you like reading? Do you, I don't know, have a favorite genre? I like autobiographies, I read a lot about other people's stories. Nice, I really like them too. Lately, I’ve been reading the stories of David Goggins, a former soldier who has been through a lot. Sometimes reading other people's stories helps, it helps a lot. It also helps you communicate with others because, you know, reading opens your mind. I haven't always been a passionate reader, but over time I’ve realized that reading helps you a lot with many things. So when I can, like during training camp when I have a bit more time, I always bring a book with me and try to read. So, Pako, we’re almost arried at the sports center, actually, we took a little detour because we were having fun discovering your passions. We’re about to arrive at the sports center, what are you doing now? Now we go to the field, lunch, I change and go to the gym. A bit of prevention, some routine things every day, and then we’re ready. We go on the field and... And give it our all, as always. Did you have an idol when you were little? Someone you looked up to for inspiration? Yes, but keep in mind that I having a different role when I was a child. I was a winger. So I looked up to, both as a player and in terms of mentality, Cristiano Ronaldo. Then over time I changed role and I started looking up to Javier Zanetti. Of course, “Pupi.” I also read his book, for me he’s an undisputed idol in terms of mentality, leadership, in everything. I try to take inspiration from those players who have a strong mentality, and that helped them during their career. So not only looking at the player, but the person. Because, you know, football doesn’t last long in life, afterwards, what remains is the person. And after that, it’s how you treated others, with people... Because maybe today the phone rings, at 36/37 years old it doesn’t ring anymore. And all that’s left is your behavior. Period. So, we’ve arrived, we’ve parked. Pako, thanks for taking us along with you. Thanks to you, you’re amazing. You’re amazing! We’ll see you in the next episode. - Bye guys! - Bye!