Rosanna Pedrollo spent half a century working for Brescia, first joining the club’s administration department in 1968 – she met De Zerbi’s father, Alfredo, in the early 1980s through his work coordinating the supporters’ clubs.
“He was always around in those days,” Pedrollo tells BBC Sport. “He organised the away trips, knew which players were going to visit which supporters’ clubs and when. He took care of everything.
“Alfredo was a huge football fan. He was a passionate, fiery character and a wonderful father. He was a gentle person, but full of energy at the same time. Very polite, but never afraid to say what he thought, whether people agreed with him or not.
“There aren’t many people like him in football today. Everything has changed so much. He gave his passion to the club.”
Pedrollo remembers a four or five-year-old De Zerbi being mascot, when he would follow the side home and away with his father. ‘Roby’, as his friends called him, would also watch training sessions and prepare tifos for home matches.
He happened to be a talented footballer, too, playing a stone’s throw from his idols for USO Mompiano, before joining lower-league side Lumezzane and then AC Milan at the age of 12.
His father “wanted so badly” to see him play for Brescia one day, says Pedrollo, adding: “That I know for certain, because he told me many times.”
Alfredo got his wish when his son spent 19 games on loan at his hometown club in 2008.
De Zerbi got his first taste for coaching in the city too, helping a friend coach youngsters at ADC Mario Rigamonti, yet many of the principles that guide his management today took root through the adversity his family faced in the economic crisis of the early ’90s.
His father was forced to sell their mat factory, as well as the home De Zerbi grew up in, instead moving into a small flat.
“We had to rebuild our lives from scratch,” De Zerbi told Lamrani, who says the Italian remains “true to the ideals of his youth and to his working-class roots”.
Indeed, the day after signing his first professional contract with Milan, De Zerbi says he was at the bank signing a mortgage to buy his parents a house.
“Coming from a modest background, success has never led him to abandon his principles or his values,” adds Lamrani, who also worked as Marcelo Bielsa’s disciplinary coach and interpreter at Leeds United.
“He has preserved the principles of solidarity and generosity instilled in him by his parents and has never renounced his social origins. He knows exactly which side of the barricades he stands on: with the people.
“He instinctively sides with the oppressed. That reflects his rebellious temperament, forged by his own life story.”
