Karl Izzo was born on 26 February 1969, is married to Diane nee Bonello and he is the father of Valerii. Karl is the son of Edgar Izzo and Patricia Nicholl. His father was a prominent personality in the local sport scene being treasurer of Sliema Wanderers FC and was also involved within the administration of Sliema Waterpolo Club. Moreover, he was also Treasurer of the ASA. His mother, Patricia Nicholl, is the daughter of one of Malta’s footballing legends, Tony Nicholl. So, his love for sport had no boundaries.
How was Karl’s childhood being raised in the seventies and eighties. ‘I attended De La Salle College in Cottonera where I can say that I owe much to the brothers for making me the person I am today. The last two scholastic years, that is Sixth Form, I attended Stella Maris. After that I stopped studying and after playing Waterpolo for a year in Hungary (1986), I returned back and opted to start working with a family run business.’
As regards his love for sport Izzo stated. ‘From a tender age I started practising Football and Waterpolo. In those days it was football in winter and waterpolo in summer. I recall when I used to train Waterpolo with Sliema we used to jump in the sea always on the 1st May and the season would be over mid-September. But I was also a football regular at Centru Sport Edukattiv with Fr Hilary. I also played with the Malta National Football Under 15 team.’
But why did he opt for Waterpolo? ‘We lived near Sliema pitch, I used to leave home with just my swimming trunks and dive in the water straight away. In those days it was the boom of pitches and we used to be there from 8am till 11pm all week. I am a Sliema boy all the way so that was it. But I loved the game and I had talent. I was a good swimmer above all. In fact, I also represented Malta in the GSSE in Cyprus. But I also had that extra edge since I was one of the few left-handed players on the island.’
‘I started with swimming, and I must give credit to my first coach Alfred Cachia. Turning to Waterpolo I started with the Under 15’s at the age of eleven. The first time that I was called up with the senior squad is when Carlos Cluett could not play since his mum had passed away and that was my first team waterpolo baptism at the age of seventeen. From there on I never looked back.’
‘Two years later I received a call up with the National Team at that time coached by Stephen Rizzo. He believed in me at such a young age and that was the start to a long national team career for me. I played 95 games with the National Team. I had a few coaches apart from Rizzo including Eugene Georgescu, who for me was one of the best coaches I was ever coached by. I stopped playing when Dirk Dowling took over since he changed the system and introduced more young players. The same thing that I did when I took over the national set-up.’
‘At the age of 30 I stopped playing with Sliema and played for two seasons with San Giljan before calling it a day.’
And Karl being human has had his ups and downs.’ Winning is always great. With Sliema I won three leagues and a number of knock outs. Playing for Malta is another plus. As regards downs I vividly record my biggest disappointment when on the eve of the European Championships B, I broke my left finger and couldn’t go after an unfortunate incident with Pierre Borg.’
‘Obviously growing up means that your days are numbered but since I love the game I wanted to jump into a coaching career. I studied, observed, listened, job shadowed and more to be where I am today.’
From a player to a coach. What is the secret behind Izzo’s success? ‘In 2002, incidentally my marriage year, it was my first coaching year though I started with the nursery set up of San Giljan a year before. Their president Brian Schembri told me to take hold of the Under 15 team and build it around Matthew Zammit. Neptunes President Lolly Psaila approached me during my tenure with San Giljan and wanted me as head of the Youth Sector and assistant coach within the senior team. I accepted the offer and from there I knew that this was my future career. But it is important to emphasise that I did it the hard way since for eight years I was assistant coach. And being the understudy of coaches the likes of Tony Camilleri, Dirk Dowling and Sergio Afric before embarking on my first experience as head coach with Sirens helped me a lot.’
For the past eight years Izzo has been the head coach of the National Team’s set up. ‘In 2013 Sergio Afric called it a day and a call for application was issued. Joe Caruana Curran, ASA President chose my candidature. I made it a point to sit down with Joe Caruana Curran and show him and discuss what my plans were for the national team and embarked on a 10-year plan. From playing six matches a season we were now playing six times as much. But with Joe I have a perfect working relationship and regard him as a 2nd father and mentor. I remember being in Ostia and discussing why even though with our limitations we cannot achieve excellent results in top competitions like other countries do. I remember our focus was to increase our yearly number of games against stronger opposition and also send players to play in foreign leagues in the winter season. But all I can say is that we understood each other totally, always went that extra mile to accommodate my requests and did it professionally even though we had limitations in all aspects since he recognized that I was genuine and all I wanted was that we together will succeed in putting Malta on the World Waterpolo map, something we managed greatly and for this I can only thank him.’
‘We made great progress. I think I will leave a legacy when I stop and making it to the European Championships in Belgrade, Barcelona and Budapest was the icing on the cake. Ok we did not win much, just a match against Turkey. But to be there with Europe’s best sixteen for three consecutive editions is something I am very proud of.’
But after reaching certain heights what are Izzo’s targets? ‘Covid has made us stop for a while. I am still discussing my future. Attempting a fourth consecutive qualification to European Championships would be nice. Obviously, our target should always be to qualify but also to improve on previous editions. The future looks bright. The last European Under 17 Championship held in Georgia we finished in twelfth position so that was also a great achievement. My wish to see more Maltese coaches in the waterpolo scene since we are being invaded by foreign coaches. Yes, I really believe we are on the right track even with the investment that is being done both from the Association and always hope for more from the Government as this will help increase level and positions in the European scene.’
And what is Karl’s opinion about the present level of waterpolo? We have a group of promising youngsters at the moment to mention a few that come to mind Jake Muscat (playing in Montenegro Top Division), Jake Bonavia, Jayden Cutajar, Sam Gialanze, Alec Fenech, Matthew Mifsud and more. These are all players that we will definitely hear about in the near future. Waterpolo has made great strides mentioning players in my coaching career like Steve Camilleri, Jordan Camilleri, Matthew Zammit, Nicky Grixti, Dino Zammit and Ben Plumpton confirms this. But what we have to do is that we educate them more and encourage them to play abroad. Playing abroad is something where we have to push since this makes all the difference between a good player and a class player.’
Karl also mentioned the league system which favours us big time. ‘The main league in Malta is the summer one. We are lucky that in summer we can attract the best players as foreigners since there is no other league going on around Europe and end of September our Maltese top players can go train / play abroad. But we have to focus more on this and give it top priority.’
Turning onto more personal aspects Karl is a non-resident ambassador to Montenegro and a director of one of the top businesses in Malta. ‘A lot of my friends joke about this since they tell me how I cope in making it with all these things in my bag. But yes, I am lucky that my wife is a workaholic and the brains to manage our business we started from zero in 1999. Without her I would definitely not be in this position today.
As regards Montenegro it cropped up since I have close sporting contacts there. I am very good friends with National team coach Gojkovic whom I rate as the best coach in the world, and it is here I go to do my coaching studies / job shadowing, and also their former Sports Minister Janovic is a close friend.’
But how is a typical day for Karl. ‘Alarm at seven in the morning. Early morning, I am always at our Santa Venera cafeteria and at nine off to the office where I start working on waterpolo and company related matters. These past months routine has changed due to Covid, so I had more time to spend more quality time with my family. But I do not regret what I did before, and this was done with the help of my wife and son and all people close to me.’
Is family life important in today’s world? ‘I try to keep as much as possible contact with my parents and sister. YES, family unity is very important for me as I said before I do my utmost to spend as much time as possible with my wife and son. But yes, though having the ups and downs we try to be positive, but I consider myself a lucky person. In life you have to keep on fighting, it’s a struggle but in the end what’s not?’
What is Karl’s favourite food? ‘I love fish. All kinds of fish.’ And mentioning his love for travelling Izzo pointed at a particular country and region. ‘It’s undoubtedly Italy. Toscana and Milan. But I also like Hungary and Montenegro.’
And one final message from Karl. ‘Take note of what the qualified people have to say. Parents though they love you to the full they are stressful, and their interest is only about their children. So, listen to advice. Watch as many matches as possible as in each and every game there is something to learn. But the most important thing in life is that you live your life to the max and always positive. This motto makes you cherish the beauty that life in this world offers.’
