Christian Manfredini recalls his journey from Juventus to Chievo

Juventus loaned him to several clubs as he sought to establish his career. Christian Manfredini eventually found an environment at Chievo Verona where he could flourish. In an interview, the former winger looks back on that winding path and the passion for football that still drives him, as he combines television commentary with helping young players find their way into the professional game.

“I was adopted when I was very young, at the age of five,” Manfredini recalls. When he arrived in Italy to join his new family, they wanted to help him settle into a new country. They took him to play on a pitch near their home. “I started playing football so I could spend time with the other boys, feel better and find my place in this new environment. That is how my passion began.” As he kept playing, he gradually recognised his own ability, while others began to notice it too.

His talent took him into Juventus’s youth system, where he spent five years. A connection in Turin proved decisive: a friend of an important club executive told him about a promising young player in Battipaglia. Manfredini was then invited to trial in Turin, and Juventus took him on.

He particularly remembers the final two years of his time in the youth set-up, when Del Piero joined the group. Having arrived from Padova, Del Piero was playing little in the first team, which included Roberto Baggio and Gianluca Vialli, and came to feature with the youth side in the closing stages of the Primavera championship. “You could already see he was different. We were promising young players, but he had something extra.” Manfredini remembers his performances with admiration and is pleased to have played alongside a player he calls a phenomenon.

The move into senior football was less straightforward for Manfredini. After spells at Pistoiese, Viterbese, Avezzano, Fermana, Cosenza and Genoa, he found the right conditions at Chievo. “At Chievo, in Verona, I finally found an environment that allowed me to express myself at the highest level,” he says. He recalls a peaceful setting, a city he loved and a coach who helped the team develop technically, tactically and as people. He also praises the president’s welcome: “My time at Chievo is an experience I still carry in my heart.”

Manfredini describes Delneri’s approach as an attacking one, with two wingers alongside two forwards. The players had to help the strikers score, but also track back to defend. “We trained enormously hard to build the athletic strength we needed. Match by match, we understood his ideas and came to believe we could make them work.” In Manfredini’s view, Chievo managed to compete with Italy’s strongest teams and finish fifth in the championship, a remarkable achievement for the club.

His move to Lazio was another turning point. Manfredini says he had often considered staying at Chievo, but the call from a major club, the chance to compete with more highly regarded players and the prospect of playing in front of 70,000 people at the Olimpico appealed to him. He says the experience forced him to change his game and helped him understand what top-level football demanded.

As for a possible return to the top level for Chievo, he considers it very difficult, but not impossible. He believes the club would need to work and bring in better players, and that several years would be required. His affection for the club remains undimmed: “My time at Chievo, like that of the players from that era, can be summed up in one word: fantastic.”

Today, Manfredini wants to continue commentating on matches, which he enjoys, while helping young players develop and reach the highest level. He also follows youth football and looks for talent in the lower divisions. Away from the pitch, he plans to keep running after his children as they grow up.