Matteo Manfredi helped his friend Andrea Radrizzani at Leeds United; now the London-based financier and former Italian army lieutenant is trying to bring the good times back to another big club, Sampdoria.
To anyone growing up in the 1990s, when Italian clubs ruled football and the Channel 4 airwaves, the idea of Sampdoria being brought to their knees would have been hard to imagine.
That decade marked the most glorious period in the history of the Genoese team, who won Serie A for the first and only time and reached the European Cup final at Wembley.
With stars such as Gianluca Vialli and Roberto Mancini, and future England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson in the dugout, their distinctive hooped shirts cut a dash across the continent.
A year ago, however, they were at their lowest ebb in recent times: relegated to Serie B again and facing an uncertain future after owner Massimo Ferrero’s arrest and bankruptcy.
Enter Matteo Manfredi, a London-based financier and business associate of former Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani, to buy Samp out of administration 12 months ago.
“The football industry is built in such a way that owners often struggle with cash flow so it’s often posing opportunities to the market, from big teams to small teams,” Manfredi tells City A.M.
“When Sampdoria came around, it popped out. We thought it was a very good asset to own because of the legacy and we have a community that really cares. We’ve sold more than 18,000 season tickets this year, which is a lot more than the average Serie A team.”
Manfredi, 44, served in the Italian army before moving to England to begin a corporate career that would take in PwC, Barclays and Lloyds, and in 2015 he founded Gestio Capital.
It was through his own company that he came to work with Radrizzani, who also sought his compatriot’s assistance when selling Leeds to 49ers Enterprises last summer.
So when Sampdoria came up for sale, Manfredi enlisted the football expertise of Radrizzani in completing the acquisition of – like Leeds – a big club that had fallen on hard times.
“These ‘sleeping giants’ are often the opportunity, so there’s definitely some comparisons,” adds Samp president Manfredi, who owns the club outright; contrary to some reports, Radrizzani is not involved.
“We are buying the stadium here in Genoa like we did in Leeds. The aim is to do it up so that we can create a lot of value.
“Sampdoria was initially portrayed to us as a real estate deal because the former owner also owned a number of cinemas. So we looked at the estate angle and found out that there was an opportunity at club level.”
Matteo Manfredi worked in finance in London for 20 years before buying Sampdoria in his native Italy
With former Italy captain Andrea Pirlo installed as manager, this has been a season of rebirth for Sampdoria, who have clinched their place in the Serie B play-offs with a game to spare.
A 1-0 home win over Reggiana on Sunday – in front of guest of honour Eriksson, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer – ensured they will finish in the top eight of the second division.
Serie B’s labyrinthine play-off system means they may need to navigate three ties to claim the remaining promotion place, but either way it has been a step in the right direction.
“It’s an exciting time. Look, we’re working very hard to rebuild the infrastructure because [we’ve had] a number of years of turmoil to say the least,” says Manfredi.
“The feeling is: we believe we can do it. Having said that, our project is at least a three- to five-year project, so we’re not in a rush to turn things around.”
Manfredi and Gestio Capital are understood to have ploughed €55m into Blucerchiati, the vehicle that controls Sampdoria, in less than 12 months as he looks to reverse years of decline.
High on the agenda has been a new training centre, completed last week. Next: improvements to their stadium, which has drawn comparisons with Boca Juniors’ legendary Bombonera.
Sporting results “must happen as the number one priority”, although they are “not the ultimate goal – that’s the initial threshold for a team,” Manfredi adds.
Manfredi lured former Italy captain Andrea Pirlo to Sampdoria as manager
“The priority for us, aside from the sports results, is future-proofing this business because at the moment we’re still selling tickets and T-shirts. We could do so much more with our community, our sponsors and our stadium.
“I definitely did learn a lot with overseeing Leeds but this industry is changing very fast. The community value hasn’t been exploited yet. I did learn and am still learning.”
Pirlo, 44, is also a work in progress but has shown enough this season to assure Manfredi that his three-year contract was a sound investment, however the play-offs finish.
“Pirlo was actually the one that immediately got the opportunity. There was no challenge in me convincing him to come on board,” he says.
“How important is he in our sports trajectory? He’s paramount. He brought a lot of stability, a lot of balance in a team that never had such balance – and also a team that was recently relegated and [had] a number of financial challenges. Having someone like him to work with every day, it’s a really big asset.”