Football: “I loved my life in Ruthenia”, says Lionel Iacono, former physical trainer in Monaco and Rodez
Long linked to Monaco, physical trainer Lionel Iacono had a break from Aveyron for five years, between 2012 and 2017, during which he took care of rugby players from Rodez as well as young people from Raf, among others. Today at the Nice training center, he was marked by his time in the department.
My son told me: “We support Rodez!”” It is true that the question arose. After almost a life in Monaco and five years in Aveyron, Lionel Iacono has something to share before the poster between ASM and Rodez, Saturday, January 7 at 6 p.m..
The former physical trainer, now director of the private high school at the Nice training center, attended this meeting from the spans of Louis-II in the company of Gabriel, 14-year-old son. “It will be the first time I have set foot there since leaving the club two and a half years ago.he indicates. I didn’t really appreciate the way it went, it wasn’t classy.”
From amateurs to pros, he experienced it all in Monaco
At 54, he retains strong attachments in both camps. Starting with Monaco. “A part of me is still associated there”, he admits, despite the badly digested epilogue. But how could it be otherwise? Lionel Iacono, who spent his childhood in the Principality and its surroundings, experienced almost everything within the Monegasque club. He was a player there, in his youth and then to finish his career as an amateur central defender with teams III and IV.
In parallel, the one who exercised the profession of PE teacher, took care of teams of young people within the associative section. In 2003, he joined the training center as a trainer and then a physical trainer. Eight years later, he joined the staff of the first team, then in Ligue 2, as an assistant physical trainer, during the 2011-2012 season. But the arrival of the main Russian shareholder Dmitry Rybolovlev put an end to this adventure.
He came to Rodez to work with a close friend
This closed chapter was the beginning of another. Because in the process, Lionel Iacono bounced back in Aveyron… by changing sports. He joined his friend Patrick Furet, then coach of the Rodez rugby team, just promoted to Federal 1, to take care of physical preparation. The two men met at the University of Nice, when Lionel Iacono was the teacher of Patrick Furet in Staps. They developed a great complicity, never denied. The second is also the godfather of one of the daughters of the first.
The possibility of working together pushed the Mediterranean into a project which did not seem determined for him at the base, especially since he was about to commit to a football club in the north of France. “At first it didn’t seem very sexyrecognizes the person concerned. I was coming out of a year with the professionals. With the Russians, the means were almost unlimited. We went green in palaces! I was with guys who had played the World Cup or the Champions League and there I arrived with players who had other activities, in addition to sport.
At Raf, he coached Coelho and Corredor
Another world, which Lionel Iacono quickly appreciated. “At first, I told myself that I was just coming for work, but in the end, I loved my life in Ruthenia”, he says. To the point of staying in the department at the end of his three seasons with the SRA.
He then worked as a physical trainer with rugby players from Decazeville and young footballers from Rodez, where he rubbed shoulders with Gregory Coelho and Killian Corredor, today in Ligue 2 with Raf. And also resumed teaching, at the college of Naucelle. “I have very good memories of my years in Aveyronhe said. With my wife, we made a lot of friends there.”
“We had a hard time leaving”
But they returned to the Côte d’Azur in 2017, when he had the opportunity to become a teacher at the Monaco training center and take care of physical preparation within the amateur section. “I had to do several jobs to get a decent salary, it was no longer viable. Otherwise, I would have stayedassures the fifty-something. Besides, with my wife, we had a lot of trouble leaving.”
Some of them are still in Aveyron, since, beyond the friendships they have made, one of their daughters recently moved to Rodez. “Which makes us come back more often”he appreciates. “And then, in a few years, it’s not forbidden for us to come back and settle here, at least for part of the year…”
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