A professional football coach in a wheelchair, former scout of Inter and founder of AG Sports Agency LLC, Antonio Genovese tells the path started after a serious accident, passion for sport, desire to move to the United States and projects to promote an increasingly inclusive idea of sport.
Antonio, let’s start with a brief presentation.
I was born in Milan almost 49 years ago. I’m the son of Sicilian parents. When I wasn’t 14, I had an accident that left me paralyzed, and since then, my life has changed completely.
After the first few months I tried to overcome above all the mental barriers, as well as the architectural ones. In Italy, unfortunately, we try to intervene on the architectural barriers, but from the cultural point of view we are still far behind. I had the opportunity to experience it during the seven months spent in London, where I went to improve my English and learn more about English football.
Since 2018 I have been the first and only professional football coach in wheelchair to have completed the Coverciano route. My life is divided between sport and the economic-financial sector. In the sports field I was a coach and, in the past, also a professional scout for Inter, despite being a milanist. I worked in the youth sector from 1996 to 2006 and then I was at Monza in the 2011-2012 season.
In 2018 I also had the first approach with the United States, because I should have gone to train the Osa Seattle from May to July. At that time, however, the call came for the Coverciano course. It does not often happen to be accepted on that path and so I chose to participate. President Pezzano and the team also published a nice message of thanks, because I had contributed to bringing the players needed to play the championship. I was sorry, but I couldn’t give up a similar occasion.
That path then allowed me to achieve good results both in Serie A and in Serie B, always reaching, and often in advance, the goals that had been assigned to me. I’ve been shooting a bit for Italy: I was two years in Rome, then in Trani and Empoli, where we also got the promotion in Serie A, in that case with me in the role of vice coach. The last experience was in Sassari, one of the most important realities of female football.
I had previously worked mainly in male football, starting from Inter, then I approached more and more to female football, which is the most followed discipline in the United States, the country where I would like to move. The United States won four times the world championship and the defending champion club is Gotham, New York and New Jersey.
At the same time I have always worked in the economic and financial sector. In the first two years I was in Deloitte, while for 21 years I have been working in the UniCredit group, which I am still part of. I’ve always dreamed of moving to America.
What does the American dream represent for you?
Physically, unfortunately, in the United States I have not yet been. The American dream, however, is above all freedom for me. As a child, when I saw the Statue of Liberty, I considered it the very symbol of America and what that country represented.
Even today is an idea that I bring within me. At home I often wear colors like blue and blue, just because I associate them with freedom. I believe that this sensitivity is also linked to my condition: the architectural and mental barriers, in Italy, often limit the freedom of people with disabilities.
I have been able to see that things can work differently abroad. For this reason, in November 2023, I decided to create AG Sports Agency LLC, a sports agency based in New York. Since April we have also opened two representative offices: one in Milan and the other in London, a city that remained in my heart.
My goal is to move to New York and live there. A lot of people living in that city when they hear me talk about New York, they’ve been asking me how many years I’ve lived there. I gather corners and places of the city as if I were a local, although in reality I have never been there. It’s a passion I feel deeply.
There is also a promise made to his father that binds his personal project to the desire to go to the United States.
Yes. In 2019, before he died, I made a promise to my father. He had left very young from Sicily, at the age of 16, because in the Mezzogiorno there were few opportunities for work. With what was defined the “carton suit” had arrived in Milan, where he continued his studies and began working as a typographer. Me, on Saturday, I often went to help him.
My father sent me important values and a great ethics. When it was bad, I went back and forth between London and Milan. At some point I thought I’d never go back to London. I was wondering what I’d come back to do.
But he said to me, “You made a commitment. Remember, you have to stay where you’re welcome. Go back to London and never miss your New York dream. You have to go.”.
I promised him I’d do it and I’m doing everything I can to keep that promise. Right now I’m waiting for the visa and I hope it’s accepted.
What view is this?
It is a visa linked to national merits. Over the years I have had several articles and services dedicated to my sports activities, from 2016 to 2019, both in Italy and abroad. I was told by reality like San Marino, Vatican Radio, Tg1 and Tg3.
Fortunately, even recently there have been other awards and other articles, so my path is not considered something too far in time. I am particularly proud, especially for my collaborators, of the Le Fonti Awards, which we have obtained as international excellence in sport and business management.
The award was held on June 25 in a beautiful setting, Palazzo Mezzanotte, in Piazza Affari, seat of the Stock Exchange, in Milan. I hope that this recognition, along with the other activities we are carrying out, will help me reach New York by the end of the summer and celebrate my birthday there, which falls right in the last days of the summer season.
I don’t think much about coincidences, but in 2018, when I became a professional football coach, the award arrived on September 20, exactly on my birthday. It is a memory that has a particular meaning to me.
She is definitely a man with a thousand passions and as many resources..
I’ve always had relationships with people living and working in America.
Between the end of December and next year I should get a journalist’s license. That would be another important milestone.
I have a sports agency and sport has always been part of my life. The discipline I practiced most is football, but after the accident I also approached other sports. At my first archery race I had what I call the “prior’s luck” and I won the trophy.
Then I played for a year and a half in wheelchair basketball, which I consider one of the most beautiful team sports. In recent times, also because Milan is going very well, I have always been passionate about basketball. I didn’t miss a game of the New York Knicks finals, even when they were broadcast at two and a half at night. I have more than one of them at home.
I also practiced ice hockey on toboggan. I had never skated, but in view of the Paralympics of Turin decided to create the national and we carried out that project.
He is also working on the birth of new national representative dedicated to athletes with disabilities.
I presented to the Government and the Federations the proposal to create two new Nationals. I’m sorry, but I’m scaramanti; I’ve already handed over to the Ministry of Disability, CONI and CIP and I’d wait to talk about it.
For the moment we are seriously talking about it and I hope we can build something concrete.
If they go to port, we can talk about it in detail in the future.
We hope that the next interview can be done directly in New York.
I hope so. By the way, I thought I was working on this project for baseball, because I think there are big margins of growth. In New York I would like to be able to meet the Italian communities, people with disabilities and sports realities that already work on inclusion.
I would like to make available my experience and create links between Italy and the United States. I think sport has this ability: it can unite people, generations and different countries.
We’re talking about AG Sports Agency LLC. Is the New York office already operational?
Yes, the venue is active and regularly registered. It is a short walk from the Empire State Building, at 112 W of the 34th Street. Currently it is a virtual office, but with the transfer to New York would become an operating office.
For at least a dozen years, probably, I will have to continue to do an employee job, as I did until today. America has important costs, but this does not frighten me and does not worry me. I hope UniCredit can give me the chance to work in New York, as there is also this opportunity. Alternatively, I will look for a society that believes in me.
With a permanent visa, moreover, there would be no problem for the company to have to invest on a job visa. It would be a situation similar to that of a local, with a condition comparable to that of a green card, and therefore for a company it would be easier to hire me.
In the United States, unlike Italy, having 49 years would not necessarily represent a problem. There they look especially if a person can do their job. Italy is a beautiful country and I am proud and proud to be Italian, but unfortunately, on the one hand for young people and on the other for people with disabilities, often forces them to look abroad.
He continued this reflection in Italy, taking part in initiatives dedicated to the future of work.
Yes. On 12 June I was in Rome, at a prefecture congress dedicated to the work of tomorrow. I’ve been trying to carry out this theme too. It is sad to think that in order to find opportunities a person must look necessarily abroad, but I think that already the fact of trying is important.
I hope that other people too have the courage to do so and that they do not stop in front of the difficulties. In Italy, schools do less and less sports and it seems that it is almost possible to further reduce the physical education space, which is already insufficient today.
In the United States, on the other hand, it is given the possibility to practice many sports, regardless of whether you are men or women, normodotes or people with disabilities. This is an extraordinary model for me.
What are the main areas of agency activity?
One of our core business is the representation of athletes in all sports. The other is to allow students-athletes to go to study in American colleges through scholarships.
This project is called Study and Play. The logo depicts an animal that represents America, with the colors of the American flag, along with the written Study and Play and the company’s name, AG Sports Agency LLC.
I would like to stress that both projects are open to All, just like the slogan of our agency: Sport for All and don’t forget anyone, even paralympic athletes.
In May of last year we also obtained the registered trademark. Considering that at the time only two years had passed since the agency was born, I think it was an important result and not easy to reach.
I hope the brand continues to grow and is increasingly recognized both in the United States and Italy. I’m seeing that it’s beginning to be appreciated, but for me every goal achieved represents only a new starting point. When I get to a finish line, I don’t stop: I try to build something new.
What would you like to build when you arrived in New York?
I would also like to create new opportunities for Italians living in the United States. I know there is a very important and numerous Italian Catholic community in New York. Don Luigi, whom I thank, has already inserted me for a few months in their WhatsApp group, although I am not yet in America.
He told me he wanted me in the group anyway. This has already made me feel part of their community, and this has made me very pleased.
I would like to get in touch with these realities, with Italian American families and sports organizations, to share experiences and skills. I would like to carry out projects capable of combining sport, training, inclusion and professional opportunities.
At the same time I am studying Law with an English university with the intent to deepen then, with a Master in presence and try to overcome the Bar Exam of New York and exercise as Advocate in the Big Apple… the Dream in the Dream.
My goal is to demonstrate that even starting from a difficult condition, we can continue to build. The barriers exist, but they must not become a reason to stop chasing their dreams.
I have two bites in my life that I think they identify me: Nothing is impossible if you really want it (Nothing is impossible if you really want it) and: I want to live my life as actor protagonist not passive viewer.
The article Antonio Genovese: “My American dream is freedom. In New York to break down the barriers” comes from IlNewyorkese.
