Former Roma defender Philippe Mexes – a loyal club servant with almost 270 appearances across seven years in the Italian capital – revisited his chapter with the Giallorossi in a preview for the highly anticipated showdown with Napoli on Sunday night.
The Frenchman had high praise for his former boss, Luciano Spalletti, who is currently in charge of Napoli. “Luciano manages to instill determination in you, he brings out your personality, he is someone who has a great deal of character. And he always manages to have his players give the best of themselves.”
“During our years together we exceeded expectations. We were a relatively small club, and Spalletti managed to have several top clubs fear us around Europe.”
“In that team only Totti and De Rossi could have been defined as true champions, then we had many good or average players like me for example, but no other top level stars.”
“They were our champions and Luciano built the team around them. Perrotta ran everywhere, the others improved and worked hard. Pizarro comes to mind, another very good footballer. But we knew how to move around the pitch, we played well.”
“And in this way we were able to make up for the differences in quality with the other teams: Inter – for example – had a far superior roster. And the other big Europeans too, just go and look at the names in those years.”
