Uzbekistan may have made history by qualifying for the World Cup for the first time in the country’s 34 years of independence in June after losing only once in 15 qualifiers. But they then had a problem: Timur Kapadze stepped down and they needed a head coach for next year’s tournament.
They turned to Fabio Cannavaro, Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning captain and Ballon d’Or winner, who has had a rich and varied coaching career and was ready to take on the challenge of managing a nation still taking its first steps in international football.
We meet on an early November afternoon in Naples, outside the gates of the Centro Paradiso, in the Soccavo district. The former Napoli, Juventus and Real Madrid centre-back arrives on his scooter and ushers us inside what was once the training ground of Maradona’s Napoli. There he is in charge of a project that is building a student halls of residence and, as part of that, is bringing back to life a football pitch: the one that, after the looting that followed the club’s bankruptcy, became unrecognisable.
You recently become head coach of Uzbekistan. How did this opportunity arise? I’ve had a coaching career very different from others. One day [the former Italy coach Marcello] Lippi called me and said: “Do you want to come and coach my team in China [Guangzhou]? I’d like to be the sporting director.” I was in Dubai as an assistant coach and he convinced me and I went. But I told him: “I know you, you know me. You do the sporting director, I’ll be the coach”.
After three months, however, he had an argument with the club and left. They thought I was just his assistant and sacked me too. We were top of the league and had reached the Asian Champions League last 16. Then that team went on to win the league and the Asian Champions League. Imagine my frustration.
After that I went to the Chinese second division, we won the league, and then I returned to Guangzhou. After three years Covid arrived and everything changed. I came back to Italy thinking I’d find something quickly, but my Asian experience wasn’t appreciated [back home]. Maybe they think it’s not a “real” experience.
What happened then? A sporting director friend convinced me to take over Benevento in Serie B. I didn’t know the league, but I trusted him. But the team had too many problems. I remember a match against Ternana: in the first half we played amazingly but in the second half we couldn’t stand up any longer. Later I found out I had four players with Covid and no one had told me. Strange injuries, not easy situations. The president sacked me.
Then Udinese came and I thought it was the right moment: fantastic club, great management. We saved them and instead a positive thing turned into a negative one. Same story at Dinamo Zagreb: the sporting director who brought me was fired and I told them: “After my first defeat you’ll fire me too.” They said no, but of course after one loss they sacked me.
I found myself in this negative cycle and felt strange, discouraged. I thought: “How is it possible? Everyone else can coach and I can’t find anything?” I wanted to stay in Italy but then this World Cup opportunity came. That has no price. I had other national team offers from Asia but never considered them. This one I did because it’s a young national team, with many talented young players. The federation is focusing a lot on academies across Uzbekistan and they’re producing good players. The Under-17, Under-19 and Under-23 teams almost always win in Asia. That was important for me.
What kind of welcome did you receive? They really appreciated the fact that in a month we watched one or two matches a day. They weren’t used to that: many foreign coaches watched a few games and then left. We stayed 40 days there, travelling to different places because we wanted to get into the project right away. There’s still a lot to do: the intensity of the Uzbek league is very different from what we will face at the World Cup. We have to reduce that gap. We will have extra camps for local players and monitor them not only in matches but also in training.
What impression did you get of the country? We live in Tashkent: an international city that is growing, with an old part and a new one. People are nice, very friendly. We’ve settled in well. We went to Samarkand too, a beautiful place. Like everywhere, there are positives and negatives: the main negative right now is pollution, it’s very high. But we are very happy with the working conditions. We have a great new sports centre provided by the federation.
What goals have you set with this national team? The World Cup will be a tournament where we must learn. Then, six months later, we have the Asian Cup, and there we will understand where we can get. I don’t want to overlook the work done so far: they brought the team to the World Cup. I want to improve what they’ve done with a slightly more European football culture.
Are there players who could emerge at the World Cup? There are a few. They have many good young players. Ours will be quite a young team. They need to improve because physically they cannot be compared with Europeans, but Uzbeks are tough: people who fight, who never give up. Playing against them is a pain in the arse. We played Uruguay: we had nine injured players, they weren’t at their best, but my players are tough. It’s not easy to play against them and we only lost 2-1.
What do you think about the expanded World Cup? Everything is expanded now. I like it because it gives opportunities to countries like Uzbekistan to qualify, which was unthinkable 30 years ago. Maybe at the start you’ll have some boring matches or too many goals in a one-sided game, but it is a chance for everyone.
What language do you speak with your players? I try to communicate in English. They understand me. I also have an interpreter. Nowadays in football it’s necessary. For me to learn Uzbek? That’s tough. I need to improve my English first.
You have a special connection with Asia: Dubai, China, now Uzbekistan. Why? They were opportunities, and I struggle to wait. I can’t sit still. I would have liked a “normal” path, but I didn’t have one. I always think: “If I don’t take this chance, maybe I will end up at home.” For me Udinese was key: a fantastic place, an exceptional club. Those are crossroads: either you take them or you go elsewhere. For now I’m elsewhere, building experience, but I’m still an Italian coach and I hope one day to come back and prove my qualities in Italy.
What will your life be like in the next months? I’ll spend a lot of time in Uzbekistan. The league is stopping soon, then we will follow the players who are in Europe. From March we will be there full time.
What’s the level of the local league? It needs improvement. There aren’t big investments and the infrastructure can grow. It is a league that must improve in many aspects. Could Uzbekistan be a surprise at the World Cup? I hope so, but it must come through work, sacrifice, knowledge and certainty. Surprises don’t just happen.
How about your other passion: how did the idea of buying and restoring the Centro Paradiso come about? It came from the fact that, after Napoli went bankrupt, this facility was constantly vandalised. They took everything, and over the years it became an open-air dump, a disaster. I had seen some reports, some photos online, and it hurt to look at them.
My idea was to have a pitch where people could play sport, football, what I’ve always done. It’s part of Napoli’s history, Maradona’s history, but it’s also my own story: I arrived there when I was 10, I played the youth competitions there, all the steps with Napoli: we played with the Primavera, I went to the first team, we slept there during training camps. It was my home.
So I decided to take it over and I’m trying to fix it. It’s not easy because it’s a sports facility with just one pitch, and everyone knows how hard it is to buy, renovate and especially manage a place like this, to make people understand it has to sustain itself.
Now the rooms will become a student housing facility, and we’ll try to create a football school, bring young people in, make it alive again. It couldn’t stay the way it was. It has to live again, also to give something back to the city of Naples. It carries the memories of generations who used to come watch Napoli train. It deserved to be brought back to life.
