APU Udine President Pedone: Manager of the Year 2025

President Pedone awarded Manager of the Year 2025 by ANSMeS Udine

December 18, 2025

Udine celebrates one of the symbolic figures of its sporting rebirth. The president of Apu Udine, Alessandro Pedonewas awarded as Executive of the Year 2025 by the National Association of Stars, Palms and Collars of Sports Merit (ANSMeS) – Provincial Committee of Udine.

A prestigious recognition that enhances not only the sporting results achieved, but above all the commitment, vision and contribution returned in recent years to the Friulian territory, intertwining sport, business and social responsibility.

The award celebrates the path built by Pedone at the helm of Apu Udine, capable of bringing the city’s basketball back to the highest national levels, culminating with the return to Serie A, at the end of a long, gradual and deeply rooted growth in the grassroots.

In his thank you speech, president Pedone wanted to underline the symbolic and cultural value of the path taken by the Juventus club:

“Today we talk about Udine throughout Italy. A few years ago, jokingly, someone even went so far as to place us in Austria. Today, however, we know where Udine is, we know that it is in Friuli Venezia Giulia and we know that here there is a sports club that has reached the highest levels of Italian basketball. This is a source of great pride for the whole territory”.

Pedone then retraced the most important stages in the history of Apu Udine, underlining how the success is the result of patient and coherent work, starting from the bottom: “We are probably the only team in Serie A that can say that we have gotten this far by truly starting from the base. Since 2011 we have crossed all categories, building step by step a solid reality, with deep roots. Today we have around 500 members in the youth sector, men’s and women’s, an arena that is always sold out and a city that has returned to identifying itself with basketball”.

The president underlined how the value of sport does not lie only in victory, but in the journey: “No one is born already arrived. You get there by also making the most of defeats and failures. Without them, successes wouldn’t have the same flavor. This is as true in sport as in business.”

In his speech, Pedone also reiterated the strong link between basketball and educational values:

“Basketball is a unique sport: there is no such thing as a draw, what counts is the alchemy of the group, respect for the rules, fair play. It is a sport that teaches self-control, responsibility and mutual respect, despite being a contact sport.”

The Juventus president then recalled how Udine has returned to occupy a prominent place in national sport: “Udine had been missing from the basketball Serie A for 16 years. Today it is one of the very few Italian cities that can boast both the football and basketball Serie A. We are a smaller city compared to others, but we know how to make ourselves respected”.

Finally, Pedone wanted to recall its entrepreneurial dimension, underlining how sport and business share the same principles: “I am an entrepreneur and I built my company starting from scratch. The same rules also apply in sport: planning, sustainability, vision and ability to create value over time.”

The recognition awarded by ANSMeS therefore represents not only a personal award, but the culmination of a sporting project that has been able to restore identity, enthusiasm and ambition to an entire community, making Udine once again a protagonist in the panorama of Italian basketball.