Daniele De Rossi released his first interview as interim head coach of Roma.
After replacing Jose Mourinho mid-season, De Rossi is set to lead the team in their upcoming fixture with Hellas Verona.
De Rossi’s ultimate objective remains reaching the Champions League qualification with the Giallorossi.
“What I’m feeling right now? Amazement because I struggle to recognize the streets, the roundabouts of the places I have seen for 18 years consecutively, emotions because I see places and faces that have shared with me a giant and beautiful part of my life, and awareness that there is an important job to do, we can’t just sit here and look around,” De Rossi said in his first interview with Roma TV.
“My reaction when I got the call from the Friedkins? Amazement, excitement, agitation then and there, I knew something could happen and I immediately made yourself available to meet them, to talk to them and to make them understand what ended up being a conversation that lasted perhaps a maximum of 10 minutes.”
“My short-term contract? I am very convinced that neither I nor the team need parachutes, I consider the team to be a strong team, it is a team with very important players. Even the best teams have moments of difficulty, it has happened to me in the past, it will happen in the future, it can happen now to other teams from now on, so we should be good at taking advantage of it. I think there is every margin to go back up so I didn’t need parachutes, but only this great opportunity.”
“My return to the Olimpico? It will be exciting, I have returned a thousand times but always as a fan, as an enthusiast, as an observer, during the period in which I was in the national team they sent me to report on our Italian players, I returned with the national team as a collaborator, we did training, we did three matches during the EUROs.”
“However, I think I can say that it won’t be the same thing, it’s a completely different role, the responsibility is different and above all being here, coming to the stadium as a fan I realized that beyond the results, beyond the moment in the rankings, of a moment of form for the team the stadium was in Roma-Barcelona mode, which happened at the time once in a while, so it will be exciting and also for this reason I hope it continues and we will continue this trend.”
“I never stopped following Roma. Experiencing the Europa League evenings last year and the Conference evenings when I came to the stadium made me realize that something special is being recreated in the relationship between the team and the fans. I think that bad moments can happen and I think that a city like this and a team like this can pull itself up through this love. The fans can give us a big push.”
