Sebastiano Pochettino set foot on the Camp des Loges lawn again on January 3, 2021. He returned, because he was already there when he was a child with Mauricio, his father, at that time a central Paris Saint-Germain. Today, both are in charge of the Parisian team. His father as the maximum responsible and his first-born, as a physical trainer.
At 25, Sebastiano has joined his father's staff on his own merits. He studied at St. Paul School in Barcelona and graduated in Sports Sciences from the University of Southampton, where he was already working as a physical trainer for different types of athletes at the university level (swimmers, basketball players, jumpers, etc.).
After his experience in university sports, his father decided to incorporate him to Tottenham's technical staff as an assistant in the Sports Sciences department, for which he ended up being responsible in just over a year. From 2019 until Mauricio's departure from Tottenham, Sebastiano was the physical trainer of the spur squad working with Kane, Son, Alli and company.
During his experience at Tottenham he was doing a master's degree in Paris at the University of Paris-Saclay, so the language will not be a barrier in his early days at PSG. According to his curriculum, in addition to Spanish, he is able to speak English, French and Catalan fluently (he grew up in Barcelona) as well as communicating if necessary in Italian and with some notions of Greek. Perfect to move in a changing room where there are a multitude of nationalities. In whatever language you play, you will have to convince them to follow your methods and set-up.
On his first day, Mauricio has already set a serious tone for working with the group. “Stop laughing. The nonsense is over,” says RMC that the Argentine said in his first contact with the group. Ironically, this medium also states, he asked them if they were tired after the high workload, in which Sebastiano surely had his share of the blame.
Work ahead
If Mauricio has to be aware of the tactical part, the level of play and the rivals, Sebastiano has no less work. Paris Saint-Germain have had several injury problems during this start of the season which, clearly, have affected the team's performance.
Right now, the infirmary only has Bernat and Mauro Icardi but Neymar, Mbappé, Verratti, Draxler and Moise Kean have already passed through there, among many others. The load of matches due to the short rest between seasons will make conditioning and preparation even more important for the Pochettino, who face an exciting challenge on their return to Paris.