Mile Svilar sat down with LaRoma24.it for an exclusive interview about his first season as Roma’s starting goalkeeper.
The 25-year-old shot-stopper – who became the regular first choice after Daniele De Rossi’s appointment at the club – spoke to the Italian news portal from Roma’s training camp at St. George’s Park.
“My early start as a footballer? I think everyone has their own pace. I started very early, maybe too early, now I feel much more matured, older. I can’t say that these years have done me any good, but they haven’t hurt me growing up mentally either.”
“I think that goalkeeper is a different role from others, that the goalkeeper must be ready mentally rather than physically to take on the role of starter in a big club. I can’t say I wasn’t ready at 18, but I feel much more ready now than I did then.”
“It’s not that during the 7 years I was standing still waiting for my moment, I worked a lot, even mentally with a mental coach who helped me a lot. The people close to me always supported me, they were always positive, they always told me that the moment would come and so it did. The moment arrived and I was prepared.”
“I wasn’t just a second-choice keeper, I was also third, then second, then third again. In my head it was sometimes difficult to accept that role, because I always thought I could do more, that I could give more to the team I played for.”
“Then the goalkeeping coaches see from a different position, I worked and didn’t stop, sometimes I had a day when I didn’t want to do anything, it’s not always easy to motivate yourself to be second or third in the position you play in, but I always knew, I always said to everyone that my time was coming and that I worked my whole life for that moment.”
“In the end, at first I thought that the moment could come sooner, yes, but there were many moments in which I thought that this was the right moment and then something happened that made it not possible. In the end I think it had to be like this, I am very happy and proud to be able to help the team and to be able to be called the starter of a great team like Roma. It has always been my dream, not only the dream, but also the goal and now there is only room to grow.”
“With De Rossi we played a different type of football, with a lot of focus on building from the back, a plan in which the goalkeeper participates a lot, sometimes I’m the player who touches the team’s balls the most during the match. You can see it, it’s different, it’s obvious, I like it because I’ve always been in teams that played from the back, like Anderlecht, Benfica, where you are always expected to play good football. I really like Mister De Rossi’s insistence on building from the back, we are working every day on the details, I really like this style of play.”
“The renewal? I am very happy, I cannot explain to you how happy I am. As I said, it has always been a dream and a goal to be a starter. And playing many matches in a team like Roma. We haven’t started talking about a renewal but for me there are no problems, I’m grateful to Roma and the coach for giving me total trust. It’s the most important thing for a goalkeeper.”
“I think that the Friedkins have done a good job, that they have made important investments to grow the team. We have a mix of young and experienced players and they are all strong.”
“For me, Soulé will become very strong, he can still grow a lot and you can see that there is something that when he touches the ball something can happen. Every time he touches the ball even in training I have the feeling: ‘Something will happen.”
“Objectives for next season? If we qualify to the Champions League 2025/26. I think that for a team like Roma it must be an objective to go to the Champions League every year. I don’t want to put pressure but a team like this with 70,000 fans in the stadium every 2 weeks must have a bigger goal than finishing outside top four. We have the quality, the ideas of the coach and I think we can go far. I thought that last year we could finish in the Champions League but it didn’t happen for some reason, I think this will be the year to return to the Champions League.”
