Ritiro Pre-Campionato: Why Italian clubs still take the mountains

Josh DeoG’s plane tires barely kiss the Italian Tarmac before he was hanged with the Alps for a pre-season camp in his new team-mast.

“They said to me when you signed, you can go home, pack a bag, back,” The Scotsman was at Hellas Verona on July 2022. “I look forward to end it.

“But literally I signed, then two hours (driving) directly into the mountains, not talking to the language – it’s scary, but after a few days I love it.”

Ritiro Pre-Campionato – translated as pre-season screat – something that is an Italian tradition.

Clubs are long running hot and moist summer for fresh air air and beautiful surrounding north of the country, preparing weeks preparing for new camps in the long camps.

“You have almost six weeks off with your family and then 17 days away,” adds left-back doig, now with Sassuolo in Serie A and Speaking from his fourth such retreat, this one in the quiet alpine village of Ronzone.

“If you’re in the mountains it just drives and work hard. You feel dead with your feet everyday but you’re good because you’ve got it because you’ve got it because you got it because you got it because you got it because you got it because you got it because you got it.

“This is a surprise to the system but it will get you back to the things of your ability and football manner.”

While more clubs, especially leading leagues, now choose for useful journeys in the world, ‘ritires’ remain unchanged heritage in Serie A.

“Every player grows in this type of tradition,” Genoa Sporting Director Marco Otolini. “We may have many mountains than other countries!”

In this summer, AC Milan only went outside Europe, playing in Hong Kong and Australia, with many clubs that set up retreats in their own training base and 12 more traveling. Napoli in Antonio’s content made it twice.

“You have a good wind, oxygen,” says Gokhan Inler, Technical Director of Udines, making a brief hope of the Austrian border. “You are more controlled by eating and sleeping. It helped build the group, new players come quickly.”