Chelsea boss Antonio Conte shocked by transfer market and reveals: I cost £100 ‘n 8 balls… 3 were flat
Blues manager's road to the top was tough - his dad and coach would single him out and shout at him in football training
NO wonder Antonio Conte almost chokes on his coffee as he reads about the latest crazy transfer fee.
Chelsea’s boss revealed he was signed for just £100 and eight footballs when he was a kid.
Young Antonio played for dad Cosimino’s club Juventina after honing his skills in a local church yard in Lecce.
He said: “My father was the owner, the coach, the kitman and everything else. He did all the jobs.
“Then, when I was 13, Lecce bought me and one of my team-mates. The transfer fee was eight footballs — and three of them were flat!
“They were expensive footballs and they also threw in 200,000 lira — which was about £100!”
Conte made his debut for Lecce when he was just 16 but revealed he was brought up the hard way unlike today’s pampered young players.
He added: “My father was very tough, especially with me.
“He wouldn’t shout at the other kids. He would just shout at me and the other players would ask ‘why’?
It was because I was his son.”
Conte went on to win the Champions League and five Serie A titles — plus 20 Azzurri caps — in a glittering 13-year career as a midfielder with Juventus.
But he learned his skills by kicking a ball around the yard of the church where his family worshipped.
The Italian is a deeply religious man and revealed how he always prays on matchdays.
He said: “We’d go to mass and then be given a little football to play outside the church.
“Yes, I go to church on the day of the game. In Italy, Sunday is the day you normally go to mass and in the two years when I was manager of the Italy national team I always went to church with my wife and daughter.
“When I can’t go on Sundays then I will go to pray during the week.
“I’ll go for ten minutes, just to pray and to think. I pray before a game — not for success, I pray for good health.
“I pray for my parents, wife and daughter and my family to stay well.
“Also I pray in the morning and before I go to bed. I also pray for the people who are ill or who are suffering. I ask God to help.
“I think health is the most important thing in this world. For me, for my parents and for people who are suffering.
“If, after that, God wants to help my team then I am also very happy! But that is secondary.”
Chelsea fans will be praying Conte is the man to turn things around after last season’s disastrous season.
Blues surrendered their Premier League title with a whimper, struggling to finish tenth as Jose Mourinho was sacked and caretaker Guus Hiddink took over.
And the 47-year-old former Italy and Juve boss is already kicking a few backsides ahead of the Premier League opener at home to West Ham tomorrow week.
His training sessions make for compelling viewing as he barks instructions, constantly pushing his players to their limits.
That is something he clearly got from his dad’s coaching.