Gino Pozzo has earned a name in world football as the proud owner of Watford Football Club. For starters, Watford is a professional football club in England top division commonly known as the English Premier League. For Gino Pozzo football is not just a business but a way of life to him and his family. This has been the case for Pozzo having been born to parents who loved and were passionate about football. Gino Pozzo is the son of Giuliana Pozzo and Gianpaolo Pozzo. As long as he can remember, his parents have always been loyal fans of the Udinese football club in Italy. This is a club found in the city of Udine where Mr. Pozzo lived as a child. In his late teenage years, Mr. Pozzo travelled to the United States for his Masters degree where he attended the prestigious Harvard University.
While in the United States he got engaged to a woman from Spain and once they married he moved to Barcelona where he would spend the next 20 years of his life. Six years ago, he made a decision to relocate to London together with his family with the motive of managing Watford Football Club. His father was also the proud owner of Udinese Club after acquiring the club back in 1986. He managed to buy the club from the profits of their family business. The family owned a successful tool making business. Other than businesses in Italy, the family is famous for running businesses in Spain where they own an electric company that deals with electrical appliances. Back in 2008 the family decided it was time to quit their woodworking business and decided to sell the business. The money acquired from this sale was to be diverted to investments in sports and particularly football.
During an interview, Gino Pozzo said that the family enjoys managing football and they are fully committed to the business. He also confirms that football is not the main focus of the family. In Europe, he has earned a reputation as among the most intelligent club owners. He says that passion for the beautiful game got into the family when his dad acquired Udinese. The family acquired the club at a time when Udinese was in financial difficulty. In less than three years, the club had risen from the third league in Italy to play in the UEFA Champions league. The lessons that the family learnt during its time with Udinese are now evident with Watford Football Club.
Gino Pozzo has been hailed as the family mastermind who is behind the success the family currently enjoys. In fact, he is known for the scout driven approach and this has been the case since he joined Udinese board of management back in 1993. Back in 2009, he helped his family acquire a Spanish club known as Granada F.C. that was struggling in third division of Spanish football. The club had a debt of over 13 million Euros with his ingenuity helping the club rise three levels above to the elite Primera Liga. In 2012, he led his family to acquire Watford Football Club which was also in heavy debt. Shortly after acquiring the club, Pozzo said that he had a belief that together with his family, they would transform the club to a top football club in England. Under his leadership Udinese had managed to play in the Champions league for a record 20 consecutive years. In under four years, he was able to bring Watford to the Premier League from the English fourth division. Once Watford was in the English Premier League, Gino Pozzo decided to sell some of his shares in Granada F.C. The share were sold to Jian Lizhang.
COMMENTS
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