CHELSEA BOSS ANTONIO CONTE TALKS TO THE DARK

SUNDAY MIRROR My Catholic faith comes first. I pray for the sick before football – and I ask God to help I’ll be intense with my players... I want them to show MY passion

RELIGION and football play a big part in Antonio Conte’s life . . . but he never mixes the two.

The new Chelsea manager attended church every Sunday as a young boy growing up in the southern Italian city of Lecce.

But once mass was over, he would join his friends in the yard outside for a kick-about under the watchful eye of his football-mad father Cosimino.

Conte remains a committed Roman Catholic, but he insists that football never enters his prayers.

He said: “I pray in the morning and before I go to bed and I pray before a game.

“Sunday is the day I normally go to mass, but when I can’t go then I will go to pray during the week instead and I also try to attend before every game. I go for 10 minutes, to pray, and to think.

“I pray before a game. Not for success. I pray for good health. I pray for my parents and my wife and daughter and my family to stay well.

“I pray for my family and also the people who are ill or who are suffering. I ask God to help.

“Of course, if after that God wants to help my team, then I’m also happy!”

After learning the basics of the game in his local churchyard, Conte joined a junior club called Juventina Lecce, where his father continued to have a big influence on him.

Conte added: “My father owned the club.

“He was the coach, the kit man and everything else. He did all the jobs and he was my first master. At times, he was very tough – and especially with me. He wouldn’t shout at the other kids. He would just shout at me. My team-mates would say ‘you haven’t made a mistake. Why always you?’ It was because I was his son, of course, and then, when I was 13, Lecce bought me and one of my team-mates.

“The transfer fee was 200,000 lira – about £100 – and eight footballs. They were expensive footballs, but three of them were flat!”

So what lessons did the young Conte learn from his father that he has incorporated into his own management style?

“For me, it’s not right to get angry,” he said. “But I always have an intensive relationship with my players, very strong, a great link, great passion.

“Sometimes during the game or training session I can shout at them, but I shout only to improve the situation.

“I will have a very intensive relationship with my players, but it takes time.

“We need to get to know each other first. That is very important.

“When you start a job and you are at the beginning of the season have only worked with the players for two weeks, you must use the time to get to know them and for them to know you.

“I love to create a link with my team. That’s what I want. I want to see the players with great passion.

“If players have passion, it transfers to their team-mates and the fans, and you create a fantastic atmosphere.” in the United States. Last season, the 35-year-old looked to be on his way out after almost 18 years at Stamford Bridge – only for Conte to sanction a 12-month extension when he took over.

Now Conte, who worked with Italian veterans like Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi, has seen enough to believeve that Terry (right) can go on until 40. Conte said: “A player must play when he feels able to. If he has the will to go every day to Conte has certainly made a passionate start with the players.

When he was presented with a cake to celebrate his 47th birthday in Minneapolis last Sunday, it was pointed out to him that club tradition dictates all newcomers must sing a song in front of the first-team squad and coaching staff, the Italian was happy to oblige.

“I sang a Neopolitan song,” revealed Conte, smiling at the memory.

“It’s a good tradition and it’s fantastic for me, my staff and the new players to sing a song. It’s important I respect this tradition.

“I got a good reception, but I am the coach. They had to force it, no? But I was satisfied with my performance.”

And to prove he can hold a tune, the Chelsea boss began crooning an old Italian love song called Malafemmena.

That’s great passion for you! the training ground to work, to have the training session, stay with the team and go away many days from his wife and his children. “If he feels this then I think it’s rright to continue to play. “I think this is John, because I see that he has the will.”