Daniele De Rossi was the protagonist of the new episode of ‘The Overlap on Tour: Unseen’, a series hosted by Join Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Jamie Carragher and Ian Wright. “In Rome there is great pressure because of the love for this club, the way we are. Football is very important for us in Rome, in general for us Italians, in particular in the capital. For this reason there is a lot pressure. The fans love the loyalty of a player, the effort put in on the pitch. Obviously, then they would like to win. We spent 10-12 years without winning but coming very close, with 9 second places and it’s crazy, against clubs built with 200. millions more than us never won but in those seasons many races were won and people were fine with that.”
On his decision to turn down all destinations at the height of his career: “Everyone here would like to play for Roma and sometimes it happens and then you have to make a choice. If you are lucky enough you can afford to choose whether to go to a better club or stay here. I made my decision, a wrong decision from a footballing point of view but for I was fine with that.”
Finally, a long parenthesis on his career as a midfielder: “I was 16 years old, we were losing against a Tuscan team. The captain, a midfielder like I would have been in my career, was sent off and the coach told me to come in and play in the same position as him. It went well, we won 2-1. In the the next match I always played in that position, it was against Pescara, I remember everything because it changed my life and so it went to the Primavera with the same coach, playing in midfield and not seeing me I went back further. In the championship year I managed to go on the bench a couple of times and I felt like a small part of that season. The following year, I played 4-5 games and in the following season Capello tried to sign Davids but the deal didn’t go through. I had teams that wanted me, including Chievo, Empoli and Reggina but I decided to stay because I believed I could play and everyone told me I was crazy and that I would never play with players of the caliber of him. Emerson, Dacourt, Tommasi, Zanetti. I played 25-26 games in the end.”