Football Daily - In Focus with Riccardo Calafiori & Roman Kemp

Episode Date: October 19, 2024

Riccardo Calafiori speaks to Roman Kemp about his career so far. They chat about life before Arsenal, growing up wanting to become a footballer and a lengthy knee injury at the age of 16. He talks about his relationship with Daniele De Rossi and Jorginho who encouraged him to join Arsenal. Plus, he opens up on the conversations he had with Mikel Arteta ahead of joining the club, and how his style of play has helped him to see the game differently.

three words that come to mind when I think about Ricardo Calafiori would be hair eyes and muscles thank you first of all for doing this in English your English is fantastic I mean how long have you been learning it for I don't know since uh Since I was a kid, I always had this passion to learn some new languages. And I started maybe with Netflix and with the lyrics of the songs. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So just through rap music and stuff? Yeah. UK drill. I'm still learning. I want to have a lesson. I want to improve a bit. And I guess let's start from the beginning because so many people have seen you burst onto the scene in England, but they've known you honestly for a long time in Italy.

Yeah. Where does Riccardo Calafiori's love for football come from? I think my passion started when I was around five or six years old. And I was actually a fan of A.S. Roma. And so I went to the stadium a lot of times. And then I started also to play for the academy of A.S. Roma. Was that from when you used to go as a boy? Was that with your family would you go or with your friends? No, with my family, with my dad especially.

Your dad is a massive fan. Actually, he told me that before I was born he wasn't even a fan of Roma and then I don't know why when I was five years old and he brought me to the stadium and everything started. And when you first started playing football like as a kid was he the guy that was there being like okay let's get better let's get better or did you just kind of leave you no no really the they both my mom and my dad they they left me doing what i what i wanted to do wow and they always support me yes at what age when you're growing up in italy a country that's known for being a fantastic footballing nation and creating such generational talent at what point in your career did you go i I'm actually quite good? I started to play in AS Roma when I was nine years old. So at the beginning you play like

five against five, seven against seven. The first season we played in 11 against 11 and I started to play left back. Then maybe I realized that I was not so bad and I started to think like maybe I could do this. You say obviously you're a big Roma fan, coming from around that region and the Premier League to a young Italian, what does it look like? What did you think about the Premier League at that time when you were growing up? Tough. Really? When I was from outside and even now that I'm pretty close to this league, it's pretty tough and completely different from Serie A and from all the other leagues.

But did you admire the players? Did you watch of Premier League. I remember when Cristiano Ronaldo was at Manchester United and around this time, 2007-2008, I started to watch. Of course. So your kind of vision of the Premier League, you know, you say it was tough. In what sense was it tough? Was it every team is competing for the title? I think that's the biggest difference between the other leagues. Here, the smallest team, they don't just defend themselves. They want to attack, they want to try to win the game, they want to put you in trouble.

And that's the biggest difference for me. And growing up at that age, who were the players that you admired, both from the Serie A and maybe from any other league? I don't know I always had more than one so if I have to speak about Roma Totti and Rossi and then I don't know if you know this guy Mirko Vucinic was a striker from from S Roma. Vucinic? Yeah of course yeah yeah yeah. Of course I have to say Cristiano Ronaldo but also at that time, a bit earlier, Thierry Arri was I think one of the... Unbelievable player and had such a statement within the Premier League.

So talk to me about being a young Italian player growing up in an academy like that because we never really see a lot of younger Italian players move to the Premier League. But now we're changing a bit. It's changing a little bit. Yeah, it is changing a little bit. Why do you think that is? Is it a family thing you want to stay with in Italy? You should ask to the other players that stay there.

Because me, when I had the chance, I wanted to come already here in Italy. But it's more about this. I think that normally Italians, they stay, they have all the comforts in Italy. They have a good life, good food, good weather, and that's the thing, I think. For sure. But for me, it was a clear chance to improve as a player

and to become top player. Yeah, so the dream was the Premier League. Yeah, I mean, as a player, if you want to improve, to make a big step, Premier League is perfect. 100%. Coming from Serie A to the Premier League,

what are the main differences that you've seen? Intensity. Intensity. And duels, and attack, defense, attack, defense,

like change of transition, you know? Yeah, the transitions are so constant. Because as I said before, maybe in Italy, if you play like in a big game, maybe you could see this a lot, but then when you play with a small team, they would like to defend and to don't concede goals, maybe counter attack once and then they could score. Yeah, for sure. And I guess all of that like kind of tactical intelligence is something that at a club like Roma did you learn that from a young age? Yeah, they teach you a lot. I had lots of different coaches like when I made my debut

Fonseca was there and then I had in the second year in my like experience with the first team I had Mourinho, Jose Mourinho. Yep. Only for six months and then I started to move around Italy a bit then Switzerland. Yeah yeah yeah I was gonna say because looking at you know where you went you went from Roma you went out on the road you played for Genoa for a little bit. Yeah. But what it seems like is that real breakthrough came at Basel. For you, what was it like? You know, what was that decision like going, OK, I'm going to go to Basel, I'm going to play in the Swiss League?

Actually, it was like my only chance to play in a team. So it was not easy. I would love to stay all my career before in a nice room as I was. But then things changed. And I think at the end it was the best choice that i ever met because you learn a lot of things as a player but also as a man you know because was like the first time that i was living alone outside my my country you have to do all the things by your own yeah houses cars yeah everything Yeah, everything. Even if you have a bad day, then you are alone there. Do you think that so far has been one of the most important moves in your career?

Yeah, for sure. Do you feel a lot to that club? I will do this again. Yeah, they gave me the chance to feel that I was a player for the first time, you know, because I played like 30 or more games in a row. That was my first time. And I felt important for this club. You then moved to Bologna. Another big step. Yeah, it's a big step, but you had a smile on your face

as soon as I mentioned Bologna. What did they mean to you, both personally and professionally? Before I said that Basel was the first season where I felt a player there, because I wanted to prove to Serie A fans that I was not that player that played in Roma in the past because I haven't played a lot. When you don't find the continuity, you cannot express yourself at 100% and then I want to prove them wrong.

That's interesting. So you wanted to prove your own fans, you know, you're a Roma fan, you wanted to prove them wrong. Yeah, that was my feeling. Of course, and at Bologna, you kind of felt like you belonged somewhere. And then helped me a lot because he was like the first guy who put me in a center back because normally I play all my career in a left back position yeah and then I make my best season so far one thing that did happen though unfortunately you did have a bad knee injury and before when I was in robot yeah when I was 16 yeah yeah you had a bad knee injury? Before, when I was a robot. When I was 16, yeah. Yeah, you had a bad knee injury at a young age. Has that always kind of played within your head? And how did you feel like you got over that?

Because I noticed that you've got a tattoo that says, never give up. Yeah, something like this, yeah. Yeah, is that tattoo kind of looking at that injury? Yeah, it was my first tattoo and I made it for this reason. Yeah. And, you know, if I look in the past, back in the past where

back in the days were so tough but also I would not say that I would do this again like pass through this whole process again. Yeah yeah yeah. But I think it helped me a lot at the end. I was 16 and suddenly you could you start to think maybe I cannot play football ever again and then you start to appreciate more like small things and then you grow up as a man your mentality change definitely and I think it helped me a lot to become a better player and better person. Do you think it built a hunger in you to make it happen? I remember like the first month that I came back after the injury and I was going on every duel like crazy

and I had no fear. You mentioned that Totti and De Rossi, you're big fans of them. What influence, what relationship do you have with those guys? With Francesco Totti, I don't know him pretty good but you could see already even if I don't know him pretty good but you could

see already even if you don't know him that he's so humble and so like an amazing person and I don't want to speak about the player because... No, of course, I mean he's a legend. He's a legend. He's an absolute legend. I really say, I don't know if you saw the Brighton fans they put out a banner, they, Totti loves pineapple on pizza. I haven't seen that for sure. He's known everywhere, I think. And for sure one of the greatest Italian players of all time. And with Rossi, I had the luck.

I know him pretty good. He's like one of my friends now. And in all my biggest decisions i always asked him uh what should i do now uh what do you think about this and always give me good advice the football daily podcast on bbc sounds on bbc sounds sporting giants delve deep into the lives and careers of some of the biggest names in sports and hear from those

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Sporting giants. Listen on BBC Sounds. The Football Daily Podcast on BBC Sounds. Speaking of decisions, need of advice, did De Rossi, was he one of the people that you spoke to when talking about coming to Arsenal? Yes, definitely. And he said, this is one of the biggest opportunities for you, for sure,

to improve as a player, as I said before. And I had no clue I wanted to go there, for sure. Talk to me about what that's like. Because for me as a fan, I can't imagine a moment in anyone's life where all of a sudden you pick up the phone and you hear, Arsenal want you yeah I hear especially Miguel Arteta and they call me but that but that's it so so where were you when you first heard of that that interest and I bet could you not stop thinking about it after that actually they started like so so early like one year right one year ago more or less but I knew just since May so right before the Euros and that's when Mikel started to call me a bit and he wanted to let me figure it out how was the Arsenal, the project that they want to do with me and I loved that since the beginning.

I spotted as well that you'd actually been an Arsenal supporter for the day. Yeah. You came to the... January, yes. Yeah, exactly. You came in January. Was that again, you know, coming in January, was that by chance or was that... Just a coincidence as well. Really?

Yeah, I just came here to visit the city because I've never been before. Yeah. And then I saw like, let me see which games we have here today. Yeah. And Arsenal was playing against Crystal Palace. And we won 5-0. And you must have thought at that point... It's not bad. But at that time I was not even thinking about coming to the Premier League or even to Arsenal especially.

Yeah, but that's interesting to know. So that phone call, everyone talks about it. Since you've signed for Arsenal, everyone has been speaking about the phone call that you've had with Mikel, with the manager. How did that go? Did he call you? Did you call him? He first wrote me and then he said, can I call you? I said, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In that moment, you're just kind of thinking, it's Mikel Arteta on the line. But it was so humble as well and so easy on the phone.

Yeah. And he just wanted to explain me a bit how was the situation, what they think about me, what things can I improve or what things I am already pretty good. Yeah. He tried to convince me that I was already convinced by myself, I think. He has spoken about it and said he knew that from that phone call you were dying to come to Arsenal.

Was that something that you wanted to get across on the phone? Because clearly you would have had interest from lots of clubs, big clubs as well, clubs like Real Madrid. That decision to say, no, I want to go with Mikel, why was it so easy for you? So many things. I mean, I thought it was exactly the right step for me because it's one of the biggest clubs in the world. But also, you don't go just there because it's Arsenal, because it's also Mikel. The way we play, the team is so young and we are so strong as well.

And it was the perfect decision, I think. You signed for Arsenal. You choose number 33. You've got a personal attachment to that number. Why number 33? It's an easy answer because I just love the number three normally because I think it's the perfect number. We say this in Italy.

I don't know if you say it also in England. How do you say it in Italian? So what is just the perfect number? No, it's the numero perf. Yeah. We say this in Italy. I don't know if you say it also in England. How do you say it in Italian? So what is just the perfect number? No, it's the numero perfetto. Oh, yeah. Numero perfetto. Perfect. And I love this number.

But when I came to Bologna, it was not free. Yeah. It was another player has it. And then last season I did so good and I want to repeat myself. Yeah. Even better. Do it even better. Perfect. Win something maybe. Your first training session with Arsenal I think it was in America.

You joined another priest. No I mean at that time I was training by myself yet because I was not ready. I came directly from holidays and of course all the flights and the flight back to to London so it was stressful at the time. Where was your first training session? In Colney, in London. So your first training session in London, you look down, you've got an Arsenal training top on, what are the thoughts that go through your head? Is this real or not? That's what I keep saying to myself because sometimes when I also in like the meeting room and I and I was at the

the Arsenal you know two years ago could you ever think that that I was here now that I could could have been here now it's such an amazing trip that I mean yeah and when you're when you're out there you're training did you notice a step up did it did it worry you at all do you know and who are those players that kind of stood out for you? Lots of players. I think everyone. But it's just the intensity, as I said before, from every player. Also from the youngest player, like the one from the academy. It's crazy when you're not used to do this.

Yeah. You get in trouble a bit, you know? Yeah, of course. But then after two weeks, more or less, I started to feel better. And now I'm completely settled in. Yeah, of course. But then after two weeks more or less, I started to feel better and now I'm completely settled in. Yeah, for sure. How much of it influences Jorginho being on you? Yeah, he helped me a lot. In London?

Yeah. Was he one of your first phone calls? Yeah, no, we were speaking already in the Euros. He convinced me, he said, for sure it's the best choice for you and you should come. You see, when you were playing in the Euros and you know that you're on the cusp of signing for Arsenal, is that in your head when you're stepping out there? Are you almost trying to impress your future boss? Are you thinking, what if Mikel's watching?

Was that for you? I just couldn't think about this. Couldn't think about anything else? And I didn't even want to know a lot about this. I want to focus on the Euros. Of course. So you kind of shut out anything?

Normally, I don't want to hear too much about this. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fantastic. So you've come to Arsenal, you've got those training sessions.

I mean, how easy was it to transition from what you've learned as a player in this area to what you need to learn now in the Premier League? It's just that when you come here, you have a lot of new information to understand. And it just, you get used to this. I mean, the more you train, the more you stay with the team. Everybody tries to help you as well.

I cannot find a player who didn't help me to settle in this fantastic team as well. Yeah and working with Mikel, you've worked with him for a couple of months now. Very demanding. Very demanding but a lot of people have said you know Granit Xhaka in the past I think he even said he was a freak you know he was a genius. I think every top trainer they are like this yeah what is it about Mikel that you've really taken in

over the last couple of months like all the days every day is thinking about how can I make this better how can I improve

my team I think every day is at the training ground every day do you view football differently seeing what he sees? Is he seeing...

No, most of the times I fully agree with him. Oh, really? Yeah. That's important. But I mean, now that you've learned from Mikel, now that you're continuing to learn from Mikel, do you find yourself looking at football going,

wow, I didn't realize... Yeah, sure. It changed me a bit. But what I said before, that I was all the time I agree with him. Yeah. And then this helped you because then if you really believe in what you're doing on the pitch, then the results can come.

There's a big word as well that Mikel uses, especially about yourself. Do you know what I'm going to say? Maybe. Aura. Yeah. Yeah. I don't even know the meaning of this word. I hear it continually.

Aura is, it's not physical, it's like around you. So when you come in the room, people go, whoa. I don't know, but I can speak about like on the pitch. Yeah. And I think he's agree about this. Like I'm agree about this because it's like, like the attitude, the behavior that I put on the pitch helped me a lot and helped the team a lot I think. When you're in that tunnel and you're lining up and you've got teammates like Saliba, Gabriel, Timber standing next to you as a defensive unit, do you look at the other team and they must be thinking... You should ask them, but for sure, they are a big scare of us.

You want to win that in the tunnel, though. Yeah, yeah. If you look at our defensive line, even like, obviously, we are more than four. We are Benoit, we are Tomi Arsene, Zinchenko, a lot of players. Kivio, I think we are one of the best in Europe. For sure. A big problem for a lot of other teams has been set pieces.

We work a lot. Corners. How much of an influence is Nikolas Jova to what you guys do? He's really an amazing guy. And he's also like Miguel. He's always tried to improve and to think about new stuff to confuse the opponents

because at some point they can understand what are you doing on the pitch so you have to change it every week more or less. We work a lot on this and you can see the result. Yeah exactly, it's definitely working I have to talk about it, Man City, the first full debut in terms of a debut game is that a dream debut game like you know full

debut for sure sure is a dream yeah were you nervous about entering that game or was it not really but i mean couldn't play a more difficult game than this yes precisely the worst game for to play i guess well it could be The worst game to play, I guess. Well, it could be the worst game, but you did score the most outrageous goal. Yeah.

Talk me through the goal. Gabriel Martinelli gets it on the left-hand side. Yeah. Are you instantly thinking you don't want to shoot? Yeah, directly. Directly,

because when he played the ball to me, like, he played more on my right side, so I have to adjust a bit my run

and then i just say okay now i want to shoot in the in the top bin yeah the top bins or in the corner and it was actually what i've done yeah it was a fantastic goal and your celebration as well yeah i couldn't i went crazy i couldn't't understand nothing more. But your instinct went to Mikel? Yeah, but I don't know. It was not myself who ran through Mikel. It was another person. I don't know. I was not my body. That was the spirit inside all of a sudden. And I was keep doing this, but I don't know to who. I swear it was completely...

So you had a brain blank. Yeah, I was like blind. Right, okay. And then have you watched the footage back? Are you embarrassed by the footage? Yeah, I'm embarrassed. What I've done, what I've done. It was some special moment and it seems like you've settled at the club in a fantastic way. I know a lot of fans spotted already you were singing Northland Forever and it seems fantastic. I like the song. You like the song? Yeah, well it seems fantastic i like this song just you like

the song just this yeah well it's okay to let this song it's fine but in terms of london how are you enjoying it how are you enjoying the uk i mean it's a huge city for sure yeah and you must love the weather yeah the weather is amazing yeah the the main reason why i came here. About 100%? Yeah. And no, to be honest, I didn't have much time to visit the city, but I want to do this as soon as I can. And for sure, you have a lot of options to do, no? You can do everything. What about English food?

Have you tried? Especially worse, to be honest. You expected worse? Yeah, it's not so bad it's not so especially at the training ground it's amazing as well okay it's different between italy for sure compared to italy have you tried any english delicacies yorkshire puddings no roast potatoes roast dinner yeah yeah like meat also yeah fish. Fish and chips. Have you done fish and chips? Not bad. Once per month you can eat it. Once per month is fine. Exactly. But it's not quite Italian pasta.

It's not quite healthy I think. No exactly. Yeah it's not it's not it's not it's not very fresh either. Has there been anything that you've brought over from home just to make it feel a little bit more like home? First month the sun. I brought the sun. Yeah, exactly first month you had some sun But in the house do you have anything we're just like no no no I want to feel the the whole experience, you know I like become an English person. You really want to embrace British I like we'll have to go to a pub if Mikel will allow you. I mean, yeah, no alcoholic beer. No, exactly No, no, I think it will be a great. Exactly. We'll give you a Shirley Temple. Okay. You ever tried one of them? No, I don't think so. No, you will do. Okay. What was that? It's like a sweet pink lemonade. Oh,

okay. With the grenadine. It's like a pink, no? Grenadine. Do you know what grenadine is? No. It's all right. You will show me it? Yeah, I'll show you. I'll show you. I'll show you. It'll be fine. fine Vicky thank you so much man it's a pleasure I love that you're embracing that British culture as well

and listen keep doing what you do thank you so much