ROMA – A long interview with The nation to tell the emotions he felt playing six months at Boca Juniors, his favorite team after of course Roma. Daniele De Rossi he wanted to express what the experience in Argentina meant to him and leave the Bombonera to be close to his family. With the promise to return.
About living in the center of Rome.
“I live 100 meters from the most famous Argentine on the planet. We are very close to St. Peter’s Square. It was a little tricky at first, because many people were surprised to find out that I lived here, but now I’m one of the neighborhood. “
Your Buenos Aires.
“I wake up at dawn and write to Osvaldo ‘send me two or three kilos of potato tortilla’. And I never ate that meat again. Looking at “La Casa de Papel” with my wife, when Palermo spoke, in Argentine, we looked at each other and we almost started to cry. When I got back to the Boca training center I felt I was. I was in the right place at the wrong time. But not a week goes by that I don’t miss all of Boca, from Buenos Aires, and I’m sorry, because they tell me that the situation in Argentina is very complicated and I’m afraid that the day I can go back, I won’t find the country I left. In the country where I was and I felt at home. “
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Sul coronavirus.
“I saw Rome as I never imagined I would see it: deserted. The Italians, and in particular the Romans, are the most alive. And I didn’t expect that we would be so respectful of the directions. Because before we thought it was a disease that mainly affected the elderly, but then people in their 30s, 40s or 50s started to die. Life is already very similar to what it was before, and this worries me because in Italy we forget everything very quickly. I’m still a little scared. “
On the championship won with Boca.
“I am happy if someone thinks of me as one who may have given them a joy, but I have done almost nothing. I realize it, I am very aware of it. The title was won by my teammates on the field and I was very happy for them. I felt part of that group, today I also feel part of that group, but I haven’t done much. A player like me, who has always been the protagonist, a leader, an important piece, who has played a thousand games, does not swell his chest for a title that my teammates have won with their teeth and nails. It would not be fair, it would be irreverent towards them. I feel part of that team and I will continue to feel part of that team for the next two or three years, but my merits are very few “.
Have you seen the match between Boca Juniors and Gimnasia?
“I could see it. My father had bought a … How do you say … A card, a subscription to see me when I was at Boca … I could have seen it, but I fell asleep. It was too late, almost three-four in the morning in Italy … The next morning I woke up, checked the news and the results Il Boca was champion! “
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What did he do? Did someone call, did they call her?
“I speak very often with many of my companions … I sent him videos, audio notes, I uploaded them, I told him I wanted prizes, money, acknowledgments. I told him it was all thanks to me, that they had done nothing to win the title (ride, ndr). Unfortunately in those days I didn’t have a party spirit, here in Italy there were hundreds of deceased every day. Their memory required prudence. I keep talking to them very often. I love him very much because they welcomed me in an incredible way, all of them. As in any dressing room, there are the five or six players that one chooses, which then remain in your heart. I love the others, but for these five or six, whatever they ask me, I will cross the Atlantic to help them ”.
Were you surprised by the level of Tevez in 2020?
“When someone doubts their level, the champions, the real number one, improve again and silence everyone. It happens always and everywhere. And a phenomenon like him is another example. Then the team’s way of playing also helped, coach Russo gave him a lot of confidence and Tevez found an optimal physical condition: at our age, if you are not 100%, everything is much more difficult. Hierarchies are not everything, they are not enough if the muscles do not respond. Everything went well, he had his head in place, as we say here, and he made an incredible second part of the championship. But it didn’t surprise me, we’re not talking about a stranger or any player. We are talking about Tevez “.
Have you ever regretted leaving Boca so early?
“I am calm with my conscience, but many times I wake up that I miss Boca. The children are happier here, besides the fact that my son Noah continues to sing Boca songs and continues to talk about Buenos Aires. But here they have their grandparents, their friends, their cousins. It was an incredible experience, very short, too short for what I wanted to do, but very intense. Very strong. I wasn’t used to changing places, let alone country. And the first time I do it, I go to the other side of the world, where nobody knew me. In Italy I had about 1,000 people who said to me “where are you going? Argentina is full of criminals, they kill you there to take a taxi at night, it’s dangerous. ” I chose to go anyway and I was comfortable and happy. But I missed my oldest daughter, she needed me. “
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It was the only reason, was there nothing else behind his farewell?
“I regret it, but it is clear that they don’t know me very well: I don’t tell lies, I never tell lies because I have no reason to lie. I do not lie. I would never have forgiven myself for using my daughter as a reason to hide an apology. In November last year I was already convinced and I had made the decision: I missed my daughter very much. I had to go back to Rome. “
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Did Riquelme try to convince her to stay?
“Yes, yes, he tried, and Bermúdez and Cascini also tried. They were all very loving and I listened to them out of respect. But I was very clear from the first day I returned, even before they took blood and did the visits. I said, “I have to go.” Nobody could convince me, not a genius like Riquelme, neither my father nor my grandfather. Nobody. It was very thoughtful. “
There are people who think she only came on vacation …
“Yes … but I don’t give a damn what a person behind a screen says. If I say that I love Boca, I am considered a smoke seller. In Argentina it is like this and here in Italy it is similar”.
Will he return to Argentina?
“I have to come back as a tourist and I have to come back to thank the people who have helped me so much. And I have in mind the idea of returning as a Boca manager. I could be the last on the list, but my idea is that. things had gone well, I would have already met Nico [Burdisso] that would start my coaching career at the back of the club. It was before the small family problems began. The day I signed the resolution I was in the Bombonera offices and suddenly I looked up and the Copa Libertadores was there, in a shop window. And I said to myself: ‘I haven’t left anything as a footballer, that’s why I want to return as a coach because this team is in my heart’. I have already told Paolo Goltz that I want him as a field assistant. “
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His Messi.
“Sharing the pitch with him is an incredible motivation. Sometimes I realized that my teammates, before the game, looked at him with different eyes, as with admiration and it happened to me too. I tried not to show my feelings or my weakness before facing such an exceptional player. When you tear the ball from Messi it gives you a different flavor than when you steal it from someone else. There are no words for such a footballer. There are also other strong ones like Ronaldo, but then there is a matter of pleasure and I like to see Messi. The only luck he has is that he played in the biggest team of the last 30 years, Guardiola’s Barcelona “.
You played with sixteen Argentines in your career: what memories do you have?
“I could say positive things about each of them. But what won me over was Batistuta. When I entered the locker room in Rome, I was a child, and it was already there. It was different from the others. He came to Rome and started to convert the company’s goals and brought us to the Scudetto after 20 years. I trained with him and I wanted to hug and kiss him. “
Your Walls.
“I think Leo can earn a permanent place in the middle of the field for many years. He has a lot of personality. He will have to improve some of them, but like all 25-year-old players. He is already a higher level than mine. I am happy for him, because I met him when he was very young, he was very shy, he got injured and I tried to help him. Iturbe and Lamela? They came from the River and I did the same, I don’t care where they come from, I just care that they behave well and are respectful. And they were. “
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What is it like to be world champion?
“I was 22, you don’t fully understand what it means to be world champion, for your career and for your country. I go to Italy and people say hello to me, tell me what he was doing while I was kicking the penalty in the final against France, people don’t forget it. 15-year-old boys who see and thank me, were practically not even born. It is something unforgettable. In the Latin countries it is the same. Certainly the Argentinian world champions of 1978 and 1986 continue to be honored in every place they go. I, wherever I went to play, took the worst insults from the opposing fans, but when the game was over I knew that they respected me. And I know that the reason was the victory of the World Cup. At 22 you get drunk on the bus discovered during the holidays, but later you realize how much it means to win a World Cup with your country “.
He had many coaches: Capello, Luis Enrique, Spalletti …
“I tried to get something from each of them, even those things that I thought were not so good. Their mistakes, which I don’t want to make the same way. I was lucky, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to be a good coach. We will see if I can transmit what they have transmitted to me. I think I’m very close to becoming a technician. I feel ready and enthusiastic. I already have meetings with my technical staff. Even without a team, we are already working together, we watch the games but I’m in no hurry, but the possibility excites me because I really want to do it. “
