Exclusive: Ancora on Lukaku’s care and why he left Napoli | OneFootball

On Stile TV, during the "Salite sulla Giostra" broadcast by Raffaele Auriemma, Tiberio Ancora, former personal trainer of Napoli, intervened: "I worked 20 years with Antonio Conte before leaving, since the times of Bari. He started with Arezzo, knew what I was doing, and saw in me the possibility of having an added value to help footballers reach a better condition. From there, we were always together and worked in synergy. We created a figure that did not exist within teams, because taking care of details through my vision can give you some extra advantage, since an athlete with high-level physical and organic efficiency can have a greater chance of winning. I am not a nutritionist, but a personal trainer specialized in functional strength training, food educator, and expert in integration for athletes. I built a protocol, which cannot be found in any book, to reach certain levels of lean mass, fat mass, hydration, general condition, my evaluations pass through heart rate, oxygenation, stability, agility, and this gives me a complete vision of the percentages that athletes at these levels must absolutely have. The percentages I indicate are indisputable because if you fit into them, then the performances are of a high level, as soon as you exit these percentages, physical problems can arise. My goal is to make the footballers fit into the percentages, comparing myself with the coaches so that the boys can reach the efficiency that guarantees them not to have problems. When the level is high (and we have always followed important teams) at a technical-tactical par, the care of detail in athletic condition gives you an extra chance to win. We want to give footballers all the tools that provide them with the maximum benefit, and the higher the level, the more the player is intelligent, the more the care of detail increases. Also, because otherwise, at those levels, you cannot compete. At a physical and organic level, you must be efficient to the maximum. Intelligent footballers, and there are many, do it. Our vision starts from these details that we take care of to perfection. Why did I leave Napoli? They asked me to stay, but I have an important studio in Lecce that suffered a lot from my absence because I was always in Napoli. The idea of not returning meant closing the studio. I made my evaluations, and I decided to step back. I was immensely sorry because there are professional and life choices that sometimes have to be made, with the boys I always had a relationship of maximum collaboration and trust, in all teams. They see me as a point of reference, and thanks to my way of doing things, I manage to have credibility. Did I leave and Lukaku get hurt? He is one of those who needs to be taken care of in the smallest details. I know how he is structured and how he should be preserved. Then, it could have also happened when I was there, but as long as I was there, I always had a complete vision. I am immensely sorry, he will have to stay out for a long time, and someone like him is difficult to find. Considering the extent of the injury, it's not a simple thing. If he had to undergo surgery, the times would increase. Lukaku needs to be known in depth to understand his importance, he is not just the one who scored 14 goals, but also a team player and a reference in the locker room, with exceptional tactical intelligence, almost impossible to replace. He is one of those who puts himself at the service of the team, while usually the opposite happens. I don't know what happened, maybe he himself skipped something that he always did with me. I don't want to point fingers, but we were together for a year, and nothing ever happened. When we did the preparation at the beginning of the season, all the data was favorable. He arrived a bit overweight, but then he got back on track, there were no particular warnings. He had to wait for a set time to reach his maximum, I wouldn't want him to have unconsciously pushed too hard and gone out of tune. He is a willing player who always seeks perfection, maybe at that moment he shouldn't have exaggerated so much. It's the only thing that comes to mind. I have already been called by other teams, but my goal was to continue staying with Napoli, improving and seeking increasingly competitive and important roles. In these teams, at the moment, I don't feel like going, because the vision I had of what I had to do there couldn't be fully realized. I have received international calls, where they ask me to personally take care of high-level athletes, which would maybe take up less time, also allowing me to follow my studio. I will evaluate without haste because I don't want to make wrong choices 🤔.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.