Pastorello: from learning with Hristo to Milito's flying contract

Summer 1995. A few months ago, Michael Jordan had started what would be his last dance (Did anyone imagine Netflix in '95?) With a brief 'I'm back' and 45 behind, Zaragoza won the Recopa with a goal from Nayim and an Ajax of veterans and promising stars broke Milan in Vienna. In Spain, Kurt Cobain was the leader of the lists with Madonna lagging behind although in Italy and in the United States, Coolio and Shaggy topped the charts with rap. Although the newspaper archive says what it says, the electronic rhythms moved the legs of young people in a Europe that bled in the Balkans while it was cooking a December 15 that would mark the history of the continent and the sport. In the middle of that month, an important treaty would be initialed on the way to the single currency, the euro, and the judgment of the Bosman Case, which would change the football market forever, would be made public.

In the middle of 95, Federico Pastorello was a young man under the age of 20 who decided to live a somewhat different summer than his peers. His father, Gaimbattista, was CEO of Parma and Federico accompanied him on a very special vacation. Your destination: Barcelona. His plan: to sign Hristo Stoichkov.

If you grow up surrounded by football (Giambattista entered Calcium with Rovereto back in the 70s and went through a good number of clubs), it is difficult that passion does not lead you to try to dedicate yourself to it. More, if before 20 you are at the house of Joan Gaspart, witnessing on the front line how a Golden Ball is signed. When everyone tried his miracles with PC Soccer by signing cracks behind huge screens of PCs now almost primitive, Federico lived live how a first-class operation was gestating. How one of the best historical times of Parma was born, which put Cannavaro, Buffon, Dino Baggio, Zola, Inzaghi and Asprilla on the payroll at the same time. Then, Thuram, Chiesa, Crespo, Veron would arrive …

Pastorello himself acknowledges at AS that summer was like a master's degree for him. “When I was 18 years old, I was studying at the university and I asked my father, who was director general of Parma, if I could follow him during his trip through the negotiations. I have followed the A-Z negotiations to bring Hristo from Barcelona to Parma. I remember the meetings with Gaspart at his house. There, I learned many things. “

Under Giambattista's arm, Federico learned how to manage a first-class club in an environment where soccer, family and business fit together in a special way that ended up conditioning his way of working in the future. But it is not necessary to anticipate events. If being inside the operation of Hristo Stoichkov's Italian adventure allowed him to see reality, the personal relationships he developed with the players his father brought to Emilia-Romagna ended up convincing the Italian to dedicate himself to representing players. For him, far from luxury, money or commissions, being an agent is about making life easier for others. The first one who asked him was Fernando Couto, when he arrived in Italy from Porto. “The first time I understood that he wanted to do this is when I followed the signing to bring Couto from Porto to Parma (in 1994). Apart from the negotiation, when the boy came to Parma I started a friendship with him And yes, he had his representative, who I have also worked with, but when he needed something he called me. I was young (Couto too) and I helped him looking for a flat and other things like that. At that time I understood that I really liked helping and being a support for the players during their career, “he explains to this newspaper.

Thus, in 1996 and after taking the necessary courses, Federico Pastorello founded P&P Sport Management. His Monaco-based agency, just a twenty-minute walk from the Loews corner, one of the legendary twists in F1 historyIt started with Antonio Benarrivo as the first star and now it has more than fifty footballers in its portfolio, including Romelu Lukaku, Kasper Schmeichel, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Keita Balde, El Shaarawy and Beppe Rossi, among others. Doing business in Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Brazil … The 'mode de agirie' of the Pastorello family already travels all over the world.

For agents, the day the summer market opens should be similar to the feeling of starting an Ironman, the hardest triathlon in the world in which 3.86 km of swimming, 180 km of cycling and a marathon (42.2 km) must be covered within 17 hours. A long distance race, where the disciplines vary tremendously, any accident can change it and the main thing is to resist, have patience, be constant and press at the right time to achieve the goal.

With AS, Federico Pastorello remembers three operations, his particular Ironman, which especially marked him: the signing of Lichtsteiner from Lazio to Juventus, the arrival of Diego Milito to Calcio from Zaragoza and a frustrated one, the transfer of Dimitar Berbatov to Juventus when he was the striker for Manchester United.

Stefan Lichtsteiner was one of the sales that Claudio Lotito, president of Lazio, will be most proud of. Although it had to be sold to Juventus, where it offered exceptional performance, a significant capital gain remained on the balance sheets. The Roman team was focused on the Swiss thanks to the good eye of its sports director, Walter Sabatini. The winger was standing out in Lille after starting his career at Grasshopper. After Euro 2008, he raised the interest of more clubs but Lazio took him out of France for just over a million euros to replace Berhami, his teammate, who went to West Ham United.

From the first season he became an important man and was key to achieving two titles at the end of the decade of the 10: the Coppa of Italy in his first campaign and the Supercoppa at the beginning of the second. Three years after his arrival, Juventus considered it to be a perfect reinforcement. Conte, a newcomer to the Turin bench, saw him capable of taking the right wing of his scheme with three central defenders. and sent Marotta for him to Rome. Pastorello was the intermediary. Furthermore, more necessary than ever since relations between Lazio and Juventus were really strained. The negotiation lasted much longer than normal. This is explained in AS the agent. “Between the two clubs there are not very good relations. On the contrary. They have a very different vision of soccer and it was very complicated. I had to manage for two months a very complicated communication between them. We try to smooth the difficulties and the differences in offers. Two very intense months and with great satisfaction. They reached an agreement at a time when these clubs never met. “

Finally, the agreement was satisfactory for both parties. Lazio entered just over nine million euros, obtaining a great benefit both in the green and at the time of his departure. Juve, on the other hand, got a period winger that was in a stage of total domination of Serie A by the bianconeri which still continues. The same one that Lazio wants to finish with, where Lotito still makes and breaks.

A matter of fringes, coincidences, seconds, planes … and even a sudden turn of the player's will. The reasons why a transfer may fall are thousands and the most unexpected. For Federico Pastorello, the operation he has stuck like a thorn was the arrival of Dimitar Berbatov at Juventus in Turin, one of the most remembered in recent years. In the summer of 2012, the Bulgarian forward ended his time at Manchester United and was aiming for a new destination: Florence. It was August 31. The center forward had everyone pending. The 'violas' were ready to receive him, both the club and an enthusiastic fans who went to the airport. Dimitar had to arrive in the morning of that day but, never came. When he was in full transfer he received a call from Juventus. Thus, Dimitar broke with Fiorentina and was going to arrive directly at Turin. This is how the agent for AS remembers how everything happened.

“It was a very intense day of work, the boy had an agreement with Fiorentina. I had sent him a plane to pick him up and we were doing a fantastic job to bring him to Juventus. We had the deal with David Gill, who was the CEO of United, and then he said he wanted to come to Juventus and it was all done. I was with Fabio Paratici (Juventus football director) two hours after the market closes, all very happy and calm after twelve or thirteen hours of work because we started at dawn. Everything looked very good, I was already in bed in the Juventus office in Milan with Fabio, relaxed. At the end, Marotta comes in, white, and says: “Look Berbatov is not coming” “What do you mean he is not coming?” We said. We were waiting for him to catch the plane in Munich to go to Turin and Marotta said to us: “No no, he called me and said he accepted Fulham's offer.” Turns out there was the coach who had thrown him at Tottenham and wanted to get back with him. It was a great disappointment because the operation was done. Not so much for an economic issue, because it was an assignment, but it was a prestigious operation. A striker from United to Juventus, with another club in the middle … It was frustrating, “he explains and acknowledges in this newspaper.

According to the Italian agent, Martin Jol, his coach at Tottenham, was the determining factor in convincing the Bulgarian to unite their destinies at Fulham again. With the Dutchman on the bench, the forward throws up some numbers that justify the operation with 42 goals in just over 100 games. The coach was a reason but the press of that day assures a different thing. Apparently, his wife was delighted with her life in England and was excited about the possibility of living in London more than Florence or Turin. Whether for Jol or his wife, Fulham was his destination, driving half of Italy mad in just a few hours.

Although the agents are not usually in front of the cameras as much as the players, Federico Pastorello had a moment to remember the 'calcium' that will remain in the collective memory as a goal or a great dribble. The reason: Diego Milito's arrival in Italian football. The Argentine was Zaragoza, where he was the star of a team that stood up to the greats and snatched titles from them. Again, a last day of market that had just started. So much so, it was early morning. It had not yet dawned and Federico's cell phone was already burning.

“One day after closing, the owner of Genoa asked me for a striker and it was 3 am. He called me and I started working at around 5 am because the owner of Zaragoza, Agapito, never slept and we talked to take Milito from Zaragoza to Genoa “, Federico assures this newspaper. Enrico Preziosi was looking for a point and the agent got to it before dawn.

The negotiations were not easy at all. In addition to going against the clock, Milito had pending payments and the understanding was slow to arrive but the deal was closed. Thus, they had to 'fly' to get to deliver the contract. So much so that the papers ended up traveling through the air, literally. “There was a lot of tension. I was in Milan in contact with the two presidents to try to close the operation, which closed two minutes before 19, which was the market closing time, and at the end, when the fax arrived, my collaborator ran to the League box to give the documents to the Genoa secretary but when he arrived, the office was already closed because it was 19:01. Then I arrived and did not know what to do. Then, it occurred to me to launch the contract inside the box of the League where the secretary of Genoa was. The video is on Youtube because all the cameras were there. We did it differently. After 30 minutes, the League accepted the contract. Technically, it arrived at 19:03 or 04 but in the end, they accepted, “says AS.

The flying contract cost Federico Pastorello a fine of several months and a € 10,000 fine leaving, that if, a great memory for him and for anyone who wants to see how a historical signing for Italian football began after his excellent performance in both Genoa and Inter.

P&P Management has been working for years in the elite of men's soccer and now it's up to them. For a few months ago, Federico Pastorello together with Claudia Romanelli have been with P&P Women, to bring them to the elite along with their guildmates. “The introduction of a division dedicated to women's football was part of the normal growth dynamics of a company that has always preferred to inspire its competitors rather than pursue them. One of the problematic aspects of women's football is that it is not yet within the scope professional sports. And surely it is an institutional and bureaucratic problem that unfortunately we cannot solve directly as a P&P. However, what we can concretely do is introduce professionalism in legal assistance to these girls, offering them the same level of services and opportunities that are available for men. The two differentiating factors of P&P Women are ultra-professional service and equal treatment, “she says.

In her list of represented Anastasia Spyridonidou, Greek international and several promising young people of Italian soccer as the interistas Matilde Pavan and Roby Aprile, Juventina Ludovica Silvioni or Cypriot Loukritia Chrysostomou.

“For P&P, soccer has been a family affair for almost 25 years, but it has been in every aspect for three generations. You live and breathe football, it is part of the DNA of this family. “A family that continues to grow alongside them, them and football. Always football.