While in Montreal recently to cover the MLS regular season finale between TFC & the Impact, Italian Football Daily’s Alf De Blasis sat down with the Impact’s Marco Donadel to discuss his lengthy Serie A career and recent move to Major League Soccer.
In Part 1 of a 3-part feature interview, Donadel discusses his formative years as a youth player at Milan, his achievements with the Italian National U21 Team and what it meant to receive a unique distinction from the Italian government.
Part 1:
Italian Football Daily: “You grew up in the Milan youth system, but never really settled in their first team. You were sent out on loan to three different clubs. What memories do you have of Milan and what was the environment like at Milanello for an emerging young player like yourself?”
Marco Donadel: “I think for every player, every step of the way in their career is fundamental. I think my Milan experience, the four years I spent there, were the most important because, if you lose a year or two or if you’re in a youth environment where they don’t teach you certain values, you have a difficult time catching up. For me, having spent a year with the junior side and three years with the Primavera (youth) team, during which I trained with the first team, I lived the Milan style of play. I became a professional, probably further along than other players my age at other teams. This was an advantage for me. When I joined Lecce in Serie B, we immediately went up to Serie A and, mentally, I was ready because Milan taught me a lot. My time at Milan ended because – it’s not that the Milan of today is lacking talent – the Milan of that era was something else. In order to play you had to take time away from Pirlo, Gattuso, Seedorf, Rui Costa, Ambrosini, Kaka’. There were 6 or 7 players fighting for one job. I won a European Championship with the U21’s, I was the captain of that team. I was a member of the Parma side that earned fourth place in Serie A and with Fiorentina as well, but to play in that Milan side, you needed to be so much more. Young players in that club needed to be exceptional so it was very difficult.”
IFD: “At that time, you were also the captain of the U21 Azzurri side that, in 2004, won the European U21 Championship and the Olympic Bronze medal at the Summer Games in Athens. How do you describe the honor of wearing the captain’s armband for an Italian National Team and leading that side to two prestigious titles?”
MD: “For me it was a family. You train at one site where all the other national age level teams train so there really is an air of family there, maybe even more so than at club level. The U21’s are closer to the National Team than the Milan youth team is to Milan. I was in the National program from the age of 15 and played in every age group right up to U21 when I was only 19 because I was already playing in Serie B at that time. They needed players with experience so I joined a group where most players were two years older than me, and we won a European Championship. For this reason, having played more games and being one of the ‘older’ players, I was named captain. And those two years were an excellent experience. We lost the Olympic semifinal but it was a team that felt like a real family so it was fantastic.”
IFD: That same year you received a very distinguished honor – a knighthood to the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. How does a player so young earn such a prestigious award?
MD: “(Laughs) Yes, I was knighted at the age of 21 as a member of the Olympic team. It’s different from being at the European Championships – there you’re in your sport whereas the Olympics are something unique. We came in third at the Summer Games in 2004, so as Bronze medalists, the entire team was given this recognition. It’s something that makes me proud and maybe in a few years from now, I’ll look back and say, ‘Wow, this is really something special.’ In that moment, it was a sporting reward, but looking back on it, the Olympics are not just sport. We lived that experience.”
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