Olympia Meran is not an ordinary club in the South Tyrolean football scene. © M. Dorn

Training 4 times a week: The slightly different 1st amateur league club

In our weekly section we present a club from the 1st amateur league in more detail. This time it is the turn of Olympia Merano. The people of Passerstadt follow their own philosophy.

25 May 2023

By: christian.morandell

The project to bring a Meran team back to higher altitudes next to Obermais is thriving. After finishing 6th last season, Olimpia Meran is moving closer to the top of the table in the 1st Amateur League Group A this year, at least in terms of placement. The team led by coach Massimo Bertinato is currently in third place. They will have to defend this place next weekend against champions and newcomer Riffian Kuens.

Last year Massimo Bertinato spoke of promotion to the national league within 2 years. According to his calculations, the jump should succeed next year. The 64-year-old explained in the SportNewsinterview.


Sports news: One day before the end of the championship, your team is in 3rd place. Happy with it?

Max Bertinato: “In summary, if it comes to third place, you can be satisfied. Even if we can't keep it. At the end of the first half of the season we were almost close to Riffian Kuens, only missing 3 points. Now the backlog is already big.”


What are the reasons for that?

“One reason is certainly that Riffian Kuens hasn’t lost a game so far and we had a phase in the middle of the second half of the season where the results didn’t speak for us.”


On Sunday, on the last matchday of the season, Riffian Kuens is coming to you...

“Yes and our intention is to inflict Riffian Kuens’ only defeat of the season.”


At the beginning of last season you said that Olimpia Meran would be promoted to the national league within 2 years. That means next season, right?

"That's correct. That is also our intention, also because the team has the quality to win the championship of the 1st amateur league, despite the fact that in my team, out of 23 players, 18 who appear in the fighting team were born either in 2000 or later. Some players born in 2007 celebrated their debut this year. Most of the players born in 2006, who have already made numerous appearances this year, will be part of the squad next season. The intention to move up with our youth players is still there, perhaps now greater than ever. I am convinced that we already had the quality to get promoted this year. Some injuries, like striker Alexander Stoimilowski (8 goals in 14 games) or the injuries to Christian and Luca Schönthaler, slowed us down a little.”


Does that mean the team won't be strengthened with experienced players next season in order to secure the goal of promotion?

“We would have liked to see some people from Merano join us. We didn't get any promises. We are not interested in other players and there is no point in bringing experienced players from away. Firstly, Meran does not have the economic conditions and secondly, this would only take away a place from a young player. The money that Olimpia has is invested in capable youth coaches and tries to increase the environment with more coaches and supervisors so that the youth players have the conditions to grow with us.”

Olympia Meran (in blue), here at the away game in Plaus. © M. Dorn

Who would be these Meran players that you want to guide to Meran?

“We spoke to a few, such as goalkeeper Alex Soffiatti or midfielder Marco Baggio. Nobody wants to come to us.”


What could be the reasons?

“For sure we train four times a week. No team in the first amateur league does that, nor do all or very few in the higher leagues. That's why players prefer to just stay where they are. There you train twice or at most three times, which means the effort is simply lower.”

“We almost always get compliments from our opponents for the football we show.” Max Bertinato

Why does Meran train 4 times?

"That's easy. As I said, we have a very young team. With a lot of hard work, commitment and hard training, you are still able to develop and improve at this age. I can see that too, because this year we are playing much, much better with almost the same squad as last season. We almost always get compliments from our opponents for the football we show.”


Doesn't the club run the risk of losing talented youth players if they don't at least get promoted to the regional league?

“Of course there is this danger. But the players have to decide for themselves what is important to them in terms of the future. Simply switching to a club at short notice because they play at a higher level and need players of a certain age at that moment cannot be effective. Not for the club and certainly not for the player. But we don't commit players. With us it is not necessary to put the final signature under the player card at the age of 16. I am convinced that a lot will change in this regard in the next few years. I think that the connection to the club will disappear in the next few years anyway.”


Can one understand from this statement that the youth rule in the major leagues has no effect?

"Yes definitely. If a youth player has quality, then he will play, no matter how old he is. As soon as a youth player who has no or average quality is out of the youth rules, then it has played out there too. But the problem is that the coaches hardly take the risk of using young players instead of the experienced ones.”


How could trainers be made aware of this?

"This is difficult. But it is definitely important that you continue your training. Football is always on the move. I have been working as a trainer for decades, but I always change my training after further training and courses. This year I made some changes again, such as the intensity or length of the training or individual training units. As a football coach you never really finish learning.”