At the recent 31st General Assembly of the European Association of Clubs (ECA), which was held for the first time in Athens, the capital of Greece and was a great success, I met, among others, Federico Valdambrini, the man who deals with Sampdoria's international affairs. He has been working for the former champions Sampdoria since 2004 and covers for the Italian team who are now in the second division, organizational matters, international transfers of FIFA, UEFA footballers and of course attends the meetings of the ECA General Assembly and Institutional Relations Working Group.

He has obtained a degree in "Scienze politiche" with a political economy major at the Università di Genova discussing the thesis "La crisi del calcio italiano: dal caso Lentini al decreto salva-calcio" after an Erasmus experience at the Faculty of Law of the University of Utrecht. He obtained the title of "Direttore Sportivo" at the Settore Tecnico di Coverciano after attending the first course in technical direction and the FIGC published his thesis "I trasferentii internazionali - L'evoluzione del FIFA TMS". So it was logical that our discussion should turn to Sampdoria, the team that in 1985 in Genoa I had met and its late president and owner (at the time), Paolo Mantovani. We talked about many different topics.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Federico Valdambrini speaks exclusively to Discoveryfootball.com Editor-in-Chief, Manos Staramopoulos.

DF: Last year, Sampdoria reached the play-offs but ultimately failed to win promotion to the top division.

R/: "Indeed, last season we fought a great battle, but in the end our team did not manage to advance to the top division. We lost to Palermo and didn't return to the big leagues.."

DF: Are you better prepared and strengthened this year?

"Very good actions have been taken by the administration thanks to the actions of the president Matteo Manfredi. First of all, he took the experienced and old striker, Andrea Sotil, who had worked at Udinese, as a coach. A man who knows very well how difficult and tough the second division championship is. Earlier we had Andrea Pirlo but he could not adapt to the demands of the club. So together with Sotil, Manfredi got a new football manager, Pietro Arcadi from Empoli, who has a lot of experience. So we moved on to some really cool additions. We took the 33-year-old striker Fabio Borini, formerly of Milan (he was last in Turkey, Fatik Karagumruk). The Swiss midfielder, Paitim Kasami (he had also moved from Olympiakos Piraeus a few years ago), the forward of Genoa, Massimo Konta, who despite his 35 years has a lot of experience in this category and we expect a lot. Also the 33-year-old tall goalkeeper (1m91) of Udinese, Marco Silvestri and the 28-year-old striker of Parma, Gennaro Tutino. So, with them and with the promotion of several young players from the B team, we expect to create a team worthy of battle with old and experienced footballers as well as young players. We hope that we will be better and claim our promotion to the big league..."

DF: With which teams do you think you will fight for promotion?.

R/: Certainly with Cremonese, which also appears to be very strong. Then the battle will be fought with Palermo and Pisa. It is possible that some other team that has not shown its strength so far..."

DF:  We know that Matteo Manfredi has taken ownership for a year now. How did the change happen?

R/: “At the end of May 2023, former Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani and businessman Matteo Manfredi reached an agreement with previous owner Massimo Ferrero to buy Sampdoria and prevent it from going bankrupt. Manfredi loves the team and helps them with all his powers. It is a success that Sampdoria has him as president and owner."

DF: Now let's go to the big category. Which teams do you consider favorites to win the title?

R/: "First of all Inter and Napoli. The holder of the title has a very tight and strong team that has its coach, Simone Inzaghi, as the protagonist and then Napoli which, with Antonio Conte now in its technical leadership, will star. And he has already shown it. From now on, Juventus with new coach Thiago Motta and Atalanta with the brilliant Gasperini will be among the teams that will claim the top 4."

DF: Juventus, however, also has a wonderful general manager, Cristiano Giuntoli. How about that?.

R/: "Yes, Giuntoli is a brilliant and successful person in his field. Thanks to his wonderful strategy this year, Juventus also sold several young players, such as the Argentine midfielder, Enzo Barenacea, the English midfielder, Samuel Ealing Jr. who gave in exchange for Douglas Lewis to Aston Villa. Then he sold to Roma the also Argentinian forward, Matias Sule, 21 years old, instead of the amount of 25.6 million euros. The 19-year-old Spaniard (b born in Holland) central defender, Dean Huissen to Bournemouth for 15, 20 million euros. And of course the international winger, Federico Chiesa with 12 million euros in Liverpool, but he was a special case..."

Vinicius

DF: At the end of October in Paris, we will have the selection of the top footballer of the year by France Football in collaboration with UEFA. Who do you think deserves to receive the Ballon d'Or, the world's noblest and most important individual award?

"I think after winning the Champions League from Real Madrid, Vinicius has the best chances, but he was not as good as his national team... For sure, in the coming years we will also talk more about the Spaniard, Lamin Yamal of Barcelona who he was also amazing in the 17th European Championship with his national team.."