The Inter and the National Team midfielder: For the ‘Ballon d’or’, there could have been some other Italians beside me… Spalletti? He has given us new ideas; it’s up to us to interpret them on the field.
Nicolo Barella is the only Italian player to be nominate for the ‘Ballon d’or‘ which was announced the other day, “For that, I can only be proud and thank my teammates, the coach and all of Inter I owe it to them this nomination. We had an amazing and a beautiful season Said the midfielder
“I don’t look at the nomination as a burden, he continued, also because, not knowing the criteria, I believe there were other Italians who deserved to be on the list.”
In the National Team, as far as he is concerned, there is almost no competition: in the sense that his place is more or less assured. It was like that with the former coach Roberto Mancini for whom he added:
“I can only thank him: he was among the first to believe in me when I was at Cagliari, to give me a starting place in the team, and the European Championship we won will bind us forever.
“Now there is a new beginning with an equally skilled coach, and I will never say that one of them is better than the other. They interpret the job differently, that’s true. Spalletti will need time and great cooperation from everyone.”
Barella also recalled his first encounter with the new coach: “He was immediately honest with me: he criticized me for what needed to be criticized and complimented me for what was right. His directness is something that stands out immediately. I think that every coach has their own characteristics and exploits those of their players. He has given us some new great ideas; it’s up to us to interpret them on the field, in our own way.”
THE ROLE
When asked what will be his new role under the new coach, the midfielder said: “I don’t think I can tell you that…”. Certainly, he makes his teams play very good football; Napoli has shown some of the best football in Europe along with Manchester City and a few others. I’m sure I am going to feel good on the field”
MACEDONIA NEXT OPPONENT
Speaking of mistakes, this time, against Macedonia and Ukraine, Italy cannot afford them: “We need two victories. It’s a new era; we need to start strong right away, to gain new confidence and new incentives.”
“It will be a tough game. We haven’t played against them for a long time, and unfortunately, it’s a bad memory any time we hear about them. That night in Palermo, I felt the pressure of that game too much, we all thought we didn’t deserve to be in the playoffs we needed to be directly qualified.
We were too eager to close that game immediately, the annoyance of having to play a playoff with two different opponents. These are not excuses, but things that made us lose our composure”.
