Matias Di Leo: "One day Franco will make his dream debut for Unión" | OneFootball

Franco Ratotti’s representative spoke with Radio Gol about the present of the forward who still belongs to Unión and is currently having a great spell at Unión Española

I really like what I do, but, you know, sometimes when you see the boys playing you feel like getting out there, but no, I’m calm. I really like what I do, so that kind of keeps you from missing that part so much.

Yes, to be honest, I always liked this side of things. Even when I was playing, I liked the idea of, I mean, I paid a lot of attention to agents, I tried, you know, to learn a bit because I always knew that, or I always wanted to do this—well, not exactly what I’m doing now, but to stay connected to football in some way, because it’s what I’m passionate about, what I like. And, you know, my old man is a coach and that part didn’t attract me as much, so I think I always kind of knew this was the path I was going to choose. There are many players who, even at the end of their careers, haven’t quite decided what they’re going to do next. I think I always had that projection, I always liked this part.

For sure, for sure it’s an advantage—at least that’s how I see it. It happened recently with Franco, given situations we’ve been through. But, look, from the start not everyone is the same, not all human beings react the same to certain adversities. For example, with Franco in particular, on the day he made his debut I noticed he was actually very calm. I think I was more nervous up there in the stands holding my breath than he was on the pitch. Even though when the ball starts rolling, when a player comes on and they say he’s been preparing for this his whole life, there are still nerves—situations like when you don’t get to play, when you get injured, a ton of adverse situations that come up when you play football. And yes, obviously having lived through those, you can offer a bit more experience—especially in my case, where we weren’t players who had it easy—and try to support, advise, and help them get through certain situations that aren’t easy.

You’ve touched on two topics that I consider fundamental: the family aspect, working together with the family. Because when I started with this, part of it was trying to do what I would have liked done for me—I had that advantage. So you try to work on the player’s development itself. As for what you said about there being good and bad agents—obviously, like in every field—but in my particular case I’ve always tried to really emphasize that: development, being able to advise them, being able to be there for them. Then, well, you learn, you make mistakes, but that was always the idea: to work together with the family so that we can shape the kids above all as people, and give them tools so they can move forward. Because a footballer at 35, 36 years old already has to be looking—his career is ending—so he has a whole life ahead, and sometimes there are moments when, like Franco, they have to go far from home. So you have to do work that goes far beyond buying a pair of boots, or a stipend or financial things—you know what I mean? You try to do the work of development and support for the kid. And often that creates a bond with the player where it’s impossible not to empathize—you end up getting attached—and the relationship goes beyond agent-player. When you achieve that, I think you’re doing a good job. I think that’s what it’s about.

Logically, logically, today I think it’s fundamental, as I said before, development—because of how life is now, social media topics. Today kids, like you said, are 13, 14 and might have 6 or 7 people writing to them, messing with their heads, putting thousands of things in their heads. So the coach maybe not only has to think about the team he has to put out on the weekend—because youth coaches, besides being coaches, are educators. So it’s impossible—although today, as you said, they have loads of tools that maybe we didn’t have back in our day—so the coach had to be everything: psychologist, nutritionist. But now I think clubs are very prepared; a lot of work is being done in that area. And yes, the coach has an important role because he’s the one who’s with the player day to day, and we also try to have that bond. But then on the pitch the one who sees it is the coach, who can notice a dip in a kid’s performance. And we also try to have that contact within normal parameters of respect—hey, look, I see this one isn’t doing well, check it—try to have that dialogue because we’re always there on the front lines to help and solve different situations.

How I got to Franco Ratotti: I started working at Colón through a close friend of mine, like a brother to me, Luis Raviolo—we played together at Colón. And from going to watch matches, I had a chat with Franco’s dad, then with Franco, we got to know each other, and honestly that 2005 age group Franco was in had some terrific players—Unión had a very good cohort. And well, the possibility came up for us to start working together and, as I said, right away we had a very nice bond. We started working and things progressed gradually, which I like—being able to share things always with respect, which is the hardest part when you have that trust with a player but don’t lose respect. It’s kind of what I experience with my dad—I’m friends with my dad, but always with respect, you know what I mean? It’s very hard to achieve that—having the player listen to you while also having a friendship. And I think with Franco we achieved that right away. So it all came together little by little, in a spectacular way, and it exceeded all my expectations workwise and personally.

Yes, yes, we found ourselves at a moment where we had to make decisions, and he’s said it whenever he’s been asked. When I had the chance you gave me, I also said it: his dream was to debut for Unión. But for different reasons we could see it was becoming difficult. Offers started arriving—approaches, inquiries—and what we discussed was that he trusts me, so I tried not to fill his head with a lot until there was something very concrete. So when a Brazilian team came in with a fairly solid offer, we talked about it and started deciding that it was time to leave, to look for the opportunity to play elsewhere. And then the Unión Española option came almost at the end, and I sat down with him, we analyzed it, and it convinced us. They treated us very well. Everything happened quickly but properly. We were able to leave Unión in an orderly way, which was the idea—the premise was always to leave Unión on good terms, not badly—for what you said, because his dream is to play for Unión, and I believe he will at some point, because that’s his desire as a fan and a homegrown kid. So yes, it was a moment where we had to make decisions, but I think we handled it well because until the end he was playing reserve, giving it his all. We did everything possible for it to happen at Unión, but unfortunately we didn’t get the chance.

I personally went 48 hours without sleeping—it was crazy—because Franco didn’t have a contract with Unión. They were sending me from Chile—meaning they were giving me the ticket—because the transfer window in Chile closed at 7 p.m. So they wanted to send a ticket on Thursday, and there was no way—when we realized it, there was no way we could catch a flight on Thursday. It was Wednesday, 7 p.m., and we still had to sign the contract with Unión. To be honest, it all happened so fast that we didn’t even have time for a thousand things. I was racing against the clock for that 7 p.m. deadline—because we had to sign the contract with Unión; then there were things like a missing director or needing to reach an agreement with the lawyer; the people in Chile too—we had to coordinate the flight, review all the contract details. We had to get there and do the medicals before signing the contract—he had to complete all the medicals. Through all that I was trying to tell him to enjoy it—enjoy everything, his contract with Unión. But yes, it was all very fast. I would have loved for him, when he signed with Unión, to have been able to celebrate at home and all that, because we all longed for it and it just wasn’t happening. And in the end, as I said, everything happened in 48 hours: we had to sign two contracts, do medicals, catch a flight—it was crazy. I remember coming back to Rosario to pack my suitcase, because I went to Chile with him for a month. I told him I wouldn’t come back until everything was in place—until he felt calm. And I stayed until he could make his debut.

Yes, when I arrived I had a hotel paid for three days, because that’s generally how long the paperwork takes. And I told the club official it wasn’t a problem but to change my flight because I was going to stay. I stayed a month with him—to sort out the apartment, so he wouldn’t be alone on the day of his debut, to handle all the hassle of moving to another country, settling in, new teammates. It was his first time leaving home, so I felt I couldn’t go back after three days—I just couldn’t. I had promised him I would stay with him. And I was lucky—and I think it was the best decision I ever made—because I felt that on the day he debuted, me being there in the stands at least to support him, talking to his dad, who was very upset because everything happened so fast that when we got word he was playing, he couldn’t go—it was all mixed feelings: joy and the family not being able to be there. But I felt it was the right thing to do. So it was an incredible 48 hours of running around, but then we really enjoyed it and had a good time. We were very happy with everything that happened and how it turned out.

Honestly it’s a huge joy. Even on the day of his debut, I can tell you it was a huge joy—the messages of congratulations, gratitude—what I mentioned at the start: when you manage to empathize and form a bond that goes beyond the job itself, it’s impossible not to get emotional or, having played, not to put yourself in his shoes and know that, well, you congratulate him for having achieved the objective. And then the other day when he scored—given his position, the goal is very important—but I think Franco has a virtue: in the previous match he won a ball and away from home they won because of a play he essentially created. And he’s a nine—he’s a goal-scoring nine—but he also helps the team a lot, he runs, he puts in the work. So the goal crowned all the work he’d been doing. In fact, in two games he earned a starting spot, and I think today he’s an undisputed starter on the team. And the fans, the directors—everyone is very happy with what he’s doing. So I’m happy for him. And yes, the messages were ones of gratitude—mine to him, his to me—feeling that we were doing things right and that these kinds of things are like a reward. You work, you try to do your best—sometimes things happen and sometimes they take longer—but in this particular case it was like a little pat, a caress, and I think he deserved it—he deserved it because he really went all in.

Yes, look, about the Saudi thing: at the time it was nice—there was an approach—but at that particular moment Franco was going into preseason with Unión and Unión had three competitions. So we believed he might get minutes at Unión and we made that decision—I think it was the right one at the time because it’s what he wanted, to stay at the club. And then what kept happening to me was exactly: why isn’t this kid who has so many goals playing? That was the constant question from the other side—how is this kid not playing, what’s going on that he’s not playing, why isn’t he playing? So now that he’s—imagine—he had thousands of calls and scouting, and he’s doing it in the first team. There was even a situation the other day with a team from China that was just crazy—unbelievable how that had to be handled.

Here’s the situation: if Unión Española gets relegated, Franco must automatically return to Unión. If Unión Española avoids relegation, it becomes a one-year loan with a purchase option, in which case, if Unión de Santa Fe wants Franco back, they have a recall option in January now—as long as Unión Española does not exercise the purchase option. I don’t know if I was clear: today, Unión Española has the option of a loan with a fee, or a purchase option in December, or a purchase option in June. Unión can exercise a recall as long as Unión Española does not exercise the purchase. If it’s a loan, Unión can say no with a fee. That is, if Unión Española exercises the purchase option—for 50%—then Franco would have to go to Unión Española no matter what, because that’s in the contract. Otherwise, Unión de Santa Fe has the possibility of a recall for him to return to the club in January.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.