Valter Di Salvo (born 2 July 1963, in Rome) is currently the Director of Football Performance & Science at the ASPIRE Academy and Qatar Football Association, in Doha (Qatar).

He is also the Executive Director of the Aspire in the World Fellows program and the annual Aspire Academy Global Summit^[1].

Previously Prof. Di Salvo has held high level positions in the area of football performance at different professional football clubs, including SS Lazio, Real Madrid CF and Manchester United FC.

In 2001, Prof. Di Salvo was awarded a Ph.D. in Sports Science at the University of Lisbon, for completion of his thesis titled ‘Training of Elite Football Players According to their Position Roles’^[2].

Since 2002 he is a Full Professor at the University of Rome “Foro Italico” where he teaches into the area of “performance training methodology”^[3].

Prof. Di Salvo has authored several scientific articles published in international journals and he is also heavily involved in the creation and discussion of academic literature surrounding the area of football performance. He is frequently invited to appear as a speaker and as a chairman at renowned international scientific congresses.

Prof. Di Salvo’s career in football performance extends back to 1989 when he worked as a fitness coach with the Italian Serie A club SS Lazio. Throughout his 14 years with the Rome-based club he has worked with a number of illustrious coaches such as Dino Zoff, Sven-Göran Eriksson, Alberto Zaccheroni and Roberto Mancini.

Prof. Di Salvo was approached by Real Madrid CF in 2003 to work as their fitness coach before joining in 2004 Sir Alex Ferguson’s staff at Manchester United FC.

Prof. Di Salvo returned to Real Madrid CF in 2007 where he was appointed as Director of Real Madrid TEC – the high performance centre which he created, developed and implemented, and which was at that time considered by many to be the most advanced football performance centre globally.

During his career Prof. Di Salvo has enjoyed a number of successes at club level, with his respective teams winning several titles including the Championship of Italian Calcio “Serie A”, the English “Premier League” and the Spanish “La Liga”, in addition to various other national and international cups and competitions.

Prof. Di Salvo has trained top level professional players that have won the Gold Ball Player and FIFA World Player awards such as Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Ronaldo de Lima, Pavel Nedved, Fabio Cannavaro, Cristiano Ronaldo^[4].

In the 1989, Di Salvo started as fitness coach of the U21 squad (“Primavera”) and the head of the fitness coaches of the academy. The following year in addition to his role with the academy he directed the U6-U11 coordinating a group of 10 coaches.

In 1996 he was appointed by Dino Zoff, the head coach of first team, to be in charge of the physical conditioning of injured players of the first team squad.

In 1998, with the appointment of Sven Goran Eriksson, Di Salvo started to work as the fitness coach of the first team during this time the club enjoyed the most successful period in its history. During the following five seasons, he won the “Serie A” title, one European Supercup, the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, the Italian Cup and two Italian Supercup.

After Eriksson appointment for the English FA, he worked with Dino Zoff, Alberto Zaccheroni and Roberto Mancini.

In his stay at SS Lazio he was worked with many successful players including Pavel Nedved, Alessandro Nesta, Juan Sebastian Veron, Paul Gascoigne, Diego Simeone, Sinisa Mihajlovic, Alen Boksic, Roberto Mancini and Hernan Crespo.

Di Salvo was appointed as fitness coach of the first team for the season 2003/04 led by Carlos Queiroz. At this time the squad, known as “galacticos”, included players such as Raul Gonzalez Blanco, Ronaldo Da Lima, David Beckham, Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane and Roberto Carlos.

During this first stage at Real Madrid CF he won the “Supercopa de España”.

Before the start of the 2004-2005 season, Di Salvo was appointed by Sir. Alex Ferguson as fitness coach of the first team. In his first season at the club the Red Devils won the Carling Cup^[5] and in 2006-2007 season the Premier League^[6]. 

Due to this success and the fantastic relationship with Sir. Alex Ferguson, Di Salvo's contract was renewed for 3 more seasons (until 2010). Nevertheless, during the summer of 2007 Real Madrid CF entrusted him with the direction of the club for both the performance and medical area creating and leading the high performance center of the club, the Real Madrid TEC^[7].

During his time at Manchester United, Di Salvo worked with players such as: Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, Edwin van der Sar, Gary Neville, Gerard Pique, Patrice Evra and Wayne Rooney.

During the second stage at the Spanish club, Di Salvo held the position of director of the performance and medical area. He created the concept, the design and scientific approach of the Real Madrid TEC, the high performance center of the club. The TEC was considered at the time a reference center for football performance and it was visited by the most important football clubs and entities of other sports and industries. After being impressed by the concept, technologies and applied methodologies experts from NASA invited Prof. Di Salvo to their headquarter, the Johnson Space Center, in order to deliver presentations on training methodologies and to share his experience on high performance^[8].

In this second period at Real Madrid CF, as a member of the technical board, Di Salvo supported the decision to hire Cristiano Ronaldo with whom he previously worked with in England^[9][10].

The team, under the leadership of Schuster, won “La Liga” and the “Supercopa de Espana”^[11].

In those years he worked with players such as: Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, Robinho, Gonzalo Higuain, Fabio Cannavaro, Ruud Van Nistelrooy.

In April 2010 Valter Di Salvo was appointed as director of football performance and science for the 3 different bodies (Qatar Football Association, Qatar Stars League and Aspire Academy) with the goal to enhance player performance and to align technologies, processes and methodologies throughout the country^[12].

Since 2014 he is the executive director of the Aspire Global Summit that is part of the program “Aspire in the World Fellows”.  This community involved 50 top clubs/federations around the world creating a platform to share and synergize know-how and experience on youth football performance development^[13]. 

Prof. Di Salvo is leading the concept and supporting the development of the Football Performance Center within the Aspire Academy facilities^[14].

From 1995 to 2001 Di Salvo was assistant professor at the University of Rome “Foro Italico”.

From 1998 to 2004, he was professor in the Specialization School of Sport Medicine of the University “Tor Vergata” of Rome where he taught Sport Training Methodology.

As of 2002 Di Salvo is a Full Professor at the University of Rome “Foro Italico” where he teaches into the area of “performance training methodology”^[15].

Since 2014 he is a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Sport &Exercise Sciences: Football Exchange, Research Institute for Sport & Exercise Science at the Liverpool John Moore University.

In the last 20 years Di Salvo has organized multiple national and international scientific events and congresses and he is currently the Executive Director of the Aspire Academy Global Summit, a yearly gather of international community on football performance and science. Prof. Valter Di Salvo is author of several scientific articles published in international journals and he has been invited to speak at national and international congresses^[16]. 

• Profile at ManUtd.com
• SS Lazio Official Site
• Real Madrid CF Official Site
• Aspire Academy Official Site
• Aspire Fellows Official Site
• QFA Official Site

[[Categoria:S.S. Lazio]]