Roma boss Daniele De Rossi paid special tribute to Zeki Celik who made his first start under De Rossi’s leadership in tonight’s win over Brighton.
During his post-match presser, De Rossi singled out Celik’s resilience and hard work which paid off as tonight the Turkish defender was one of the best performers on the pitch.
“Celik is one of the strongest players we have, it’s not that if I lay into him then he becomes strong. If he plays well tonight it’s because he trains hard.”
“When I first came here I preferred anyone to him, but he was always there with a smile – he wanted to play more and I replied that I made choices to help me win matches, I have nothing against him and I will be relying on him, then Montella (Turkey’s head coach) also came to talk to him and motivated him.”
“Even when he never played, he never lowered the level of work he put in training and that makes the difference. One can react with a sulk, with a smile, and that’s OK – I was a starter and if I didn’t play I wasn’t very happy, but if you go strong in training, you go strong in the match too.”
