On Wednesday (December 30th) Pellegrino Matarazzo celebrated his one-year jubilee as coach of VfB Stuttgart. In view of the past seasons, this is not an everyday anniversary for a head coach at Cannstatter Wasen. Most recently, Hannes Wolf (2016 to 2018), Bruno Labbadia (2010 to 2013), Markus Babbel (2008 to 2009) and Armin Veh (2006 to 2008) sat in the former ejector seat in the Mercedes-Benz Arena for over twelve months.
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Sports director Sven Mislintat recently described the polite Italian-American as a “stroke of luck for VfB”. Matarazzo himself now gave in one Interview with the members’ magazine “Dunkelrot” some interesting insights into his life path. This led him from New York over the soccer fields of the Rhineland-Palatinate province to the big Bundesliga stadiums of the republic. Looking back at an unusual career in the modern footballbusiness.
VfB Stuttgart
From the unknown to the surprise: Why Pellegrino Matarzzo is a stroke of luck for VfB Stuttgart
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The passion for football has always been there
Matarazzo was born and raised in the US state of New Jersey. His parents are from Italy. The father from Avellino, about 40 kilometers east of Naples, the mother from Salerno, the capital of the southern Italian province of Campania.
“When I started playing football, it was still a little ridiculed in the USA, but my extended Italian family has always had a passion for this sport,” says Matarazzo, who grew up with his three younger brothers spent in Paterson in the New York belt.
Football has always played a major role in the Matarazzo family. “Sunday was always the family day on which our family met with the families of my father’s siblings at my grandparents’, says Matarazzo, looking back. “First we had a good meal, then we went out to a park and all played football together there. Two goals without nets, but it was always a lot of fun. ”In short:“ So football has always been an integral part of my life. ”
Studying math in New York was a formative time
From 1995 to 1999 Matarazzo studied applied mathematics at Columbia University in New York. A course that the young Pellegrino would not have been able to afford without his talent for football.
“My family comes from a humble background. She would not have been able to pay Columbia tuition fees. And at a university like Columbia there are no scholarships for sports. But if you have good grades and have a trait that makes you special – which was my footballing potential for me – then you will get state-funded support. That way I could afford to study there. “
While studying math, the 1.98 meter tall central defender played for the Columbia Lions, his university’s soccer team in the Ivy League. In the retrospective, Matarazzo describes his student days as “the most formative time” of his life: “I moved to New York when I was 17. Until then, I had only lived in the sheltered environment of my family at home in Paterson, New Jersey. And then, as a student and athlete, I came into a world in which there are endless offers and one can develop in the anonymity of this city. “
Matarazzo chooses the adventure variant
Pellegrino Matarzzo also dreamed the big dream of playing for a big club in Europe one day. However, following his studies there was also an offer to work for a New York investment bank.
Matarazzo refused – and instead chose the adventure variant. That should first bring him a trial training at a second division club in the home of his parents. “I wanted to see what I can achieve,” says Matarazzo today. The problem: the trial training that a consultant friend wanted to organize never took place.
Without further ado, the young defender made the most of the situation and spent half a year with his grandparents in Italy. “I kept training, traveled a lot and saw a lot. I enjoyed the time. It was a good time, but not the profitable one in terms of football. “
“Football is football, no matter where in the world”
After the failed detour to Italy, the talented defender ended up in Germany. More precisely in Rhineland-Palatinate at Eintracht Bad Kreuznach in the top division. In a foreign country and initially without any language skills, the Schlaks quickly found his way around. “Football is football, no matter where in the world.”
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Through the stations of Wehen Wiesbaden (2001 to 2003), Preußen Münster (2003 to 2004) and Wattenscheid 09 (2005 to 2006), Matarazzo finally made it to the then third-class regional league. At the age of 28, the Italian-American moved to 1. FC Nürnberg, where he was offered the opportunity to play as a player in the second team and, at the same time, gain experience in the coaching sector and obtain coaching licenses.
The next step on the career ladder
“I was able to experience a very broad training there,” said Matarazzo, who ultimately worked for “Glubb” in various areas for eleven years.
In 2017, following his apprenticeship at Valznerweiher, the next step on the career ladder followed: TSG 1899 Hoffenheim brought the then 39-year-old to the Kraichgau as head coach for their U-17 team. “The move to Hoffenheim was extremely profitable for me,” says Matarazzo.
Just one year later he became assistant coach of the Bundesliga team under head coach Julian Nagelsmann: “The time with Julian Nagelsmann was formative in that many things were confirmed. And with his ideas and approaches he filled one or the other gap in my case. “
“I’ve invested a lot of sweat and blood”
On Saturday (January 2nd) his new club, VfB Stuttgart, will see his old mentor from Hoffenheim’s days, who is now on the sidelines at RB Leipzig.
At the end of 2019, Matarazzo took over VfB in the 2nd division and led it back into the Bundesliga. In Swabia, the football teacher with the unusual résumé is now sitting on the head coach’s chair for the first time. And after a few minor teething problems, it inspires fans and experts.
The furious start of his young team didn’t upset the American with Italian roots: “I invested a lot of sweat and blood. Now I am grateful every day to be a coach at this level, to be a coach at this club and to be able to experience all of that. “
