Terminated if successful – the case of trainer Simone Seppi

Simone Seppi has been a football coach in South Tyrol for five years. During this time, the 34-year-old from Meran worked for exactly three clubs and achieved exactly three promotions with these three clubs without being relegated once. Seppi's career as a trainer began in Algund. With the Burggräflers, the then neo-coach rose from the third to the second amateur league. “For me, the best time to date,” says Simone Seppi.

Then he moved to the Passeier Valley, to the sports club, to the first amateur league. In the second year of his coaching, he led the Passeirer team into the regional league. After the last matchday, the SC separated from the promotion coach - and was promptly relegated again this year.

Seppi then signed with FC Sarnthein. With the blue and yellow, the Merano team won the cup and took second place in the playoffs - after that, the traditional club from the Sarntal was almost certainly "fished" into the seventh league because a place became available due to Tramin's promotion to the upper league. Seppi had a significant hand in this too. But the paths diverged again. In the future, “homecomer” Ernst Eschgfaller will be on the Sarner sidelines.

Seppi only has a partial explanation as to why he was not confirmed by the last two clubs despite promotion. “It was two turbulent seasons at SC Passeier, especially off the pitch. But the team and I managed to keep all the extraneous things like criticism and village talks away from us and just concentrated on playing football. Shielding the team from these disruptive factors was the key to our success,” says Seppi.

There are several versions regarding the reason for his dismissal. The very last thing that Seppi doesn't really want to believe even today is that some players were not satisfied with his work as a coach and demanded a change of coach.

The situation of the Merano football teacher was completely different last year in Sarntal. “The experience in Sarntal didn’t start very well in terms of results. But I immediately noticed that there was enormous potential in this team. “I just had to find the right way to reveal these qualities during training, so the positive results would only have been a matter of time,” says Seppi.

And indeed: in the second half of the season, the team mastered the game system and gained more and more self-confidence from game to game. “We won the state cup and took second place in the playoffs, which ultimately meant promotion to the state league,” explains the former coach. But here too the dismissal followed. Reason? "There is no reason".

Simone Seppi doesn't have a new club in mind for this year's football season. “During this time I will continue my training, watch FC Südtirol games and other professional clubs and attend training sessions with some of my colleagues. You can learn from every coach, no matter what league the club plays in. And hopefully I’ll find a new club at some point,” says Seppi.

With his curriculum, that shouldn't be too difficult. Three promotions in five years, someone has to imitate him. And maybe he will finally be able to remain the man on the sidelines in the higher league if he gets promoted.

Tennis

Football

Italy

International leagues

International

hockey

Winter sports

Read More

Motorsport

Cycling

Watersports

Favorites

Terminated if successful – the case of trainer Simone Seppi

If the results at a sports club, whether in football, swimming or tennis, are not right, then it is almost always the coach's fault - regardless of whether it really hits him or not. The case of Simone Seppi makes it clear that even with success there is no guarantee of work in your pocket.

Comments (0)