Fatih Karagümrük coach Andrea Pirlo says he is sorry for the Turkish and Syrian people following the devastating earthquakes that hit the region and hopes that he and his team can help. Pirlo and the Karagümrük players have come together with other Turkish clubs to try and the relief effort and speaking to the Daily Mail, he discussed his experiences in the country so far:
“I’m sorry for what has happened, I’m sorry for everybody,’ Pirlo says. ‘I hope we can contribute something to help them overcome this huge tragedy.
“I’m very sorry also for Volkan, who unfortunately is there in this tragic moment. We want to help. We know it will be difficult, but we are trying to do our bit. I send a big hug to everyone.
“Karagümrük? It’s a nice city, a beautiful life, It’s been tough because it’s different to Italy and other countries. But now I’m OK.
“For me, it’s important to have big objectives, when I was a player, I played always to win the big trophies and now I have the same objective. I am here to improve but the ambition is to go into a big team, to win the Champions League. Because if you don’t have ambition, you have to stay home.
“When I was a player, it was different — it was easy, you think just how you can play, the result, if you play well or not. When you are a coach, you have to understand everything.
“You have to talk with 20 people with different mentalities — maybe 10 are happy, the others are not. So it’s a difficult job, it’s different work.’
“I have three or four rules, I don’t like phones before the game. I don’t like that players arrive to meetings late. If they arrive late, they don’t play. When you are on the field, you have to work 100 per cent. After, you can do what you want.”
