Vincenzo Grifo is now playing for SC Freiburg for the third time, is an important anchor in the current highs of the Breisgauer – and has put the hopes of the EM with the Italian selection postponed to 2021.
This bankruptcy was a defeat that even the ambitious Vincenzo Grifo could cope with. On the goal wall he faced Quentin Fouley – and the captain of the southwest regional division Rot-Weiß Koblenz scored three times. The offensive player of SC Freiburg, however, remained without a goal, as did his team at Werder Bremen (0-0).
“Bremen was very low, they didn’t give us the space to run up to the chain and get fouled,” said Grifo in an interview with presenter Sven Voss in the course of the ZDF’s “Current Sports Studio” late on Saturday evening. “Ultimately, it was 0-0. It would be cool to win a game like this 1-0, but we’re not complaining, we have 31 points and are happy with it.”
Grifo is also happy that he is now playing for the third time at the sports club, after moving from Breisgau to Borussia Mönchengladbach and then to TSG Hoffenheim, where he had played before. “I had great clubs with Hoffenheim and Gladbach, but I didn’t get the chance. Freiburg rebuilt me and gave me the chance to flourish,” said Grifo. “I want to give back what you gave me – lots of love and lots of trust.” The latter was given to him primarily by coach Christian Streich, who plays a major role for him, also because he “wants to make him better every day, even if I’m already 27 and have seen a lot in football – he’s extraordinary and it’s fun to be part of to work for him “.
Grifo’s “kick, kick, kick” reminder
Although he has not scored himself since the victory at TSG Hoffenheim at the beginning of January and only contributed one assist in the home win against BVB, Grifo is still Freiburg’s top scorer with seven goals and five assists. He did not lay his foundations in the youth performance center, but on the football field in Pforzheim’s Nordstadt, where the ZDF also interviewed some of his childhood friends who are still in close contact with the now famous football team. “He almost always won, no matter who he played with,” they said. And Grifo would “like to rewind for another day, that was so nice, you had few worries, just kick, kick, kick – that made me the player I am now”. From this time he brought among other things the elbows and the emotionality into professional football.
First the Bundesliga, then the EM hope
“He also had to work his way up, even if it doesn’t look like it when he plays,” said Streich in a single player about his protégé, “but if you look closely, you can see it.” The fact that Grifo made it into the Italian national team obviously not only made him happy. “It was his dream to join the Squadra Azzurra – and it was my dream, too,” said the SC coach. Grifo, on the other hand, especially thanks “God that he gave me the chance and the talent”.
He would rather not waste too many thoughts on a possible European Championship participation with Italy, but rather think from game to game like with the sports club, even if that might sound boring. That applies in Freiburg despite 31 points and eighth place. It is “completely legitimate” that you dream of international games as a professional, but the club wants “to keep the ball flat first. We are playing a very good season, are hungry and do our best every day.”
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Vincenzo Grifo about his unusual education: “My mother and father said: Boy, are you crazy?”
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