Wales international Ethan Ampadu explains why he opted to leave Chelsea on loan for Venezia. ‘Serie A is a fantastic league and hopefully I can show what I can do over there.’
The defender was a deadline day signing on a one-season loan and is expected to make his debut tomorrow against fellow newly-promoted side Empoli.
“Serie A is a fantastic league, many top players have played there. It’s a very high level with a lot of very good teams. It’s going to be a great challenge but hopefully I can show what I can do over there,” he told The Mirror newspaper.
“As players, you want to play football. It doesn’t matter if that is to keep your place for Wales or keep it week in, week out playing for the club.
“Either way, we want to play every game as we can.”
Ampadu turns 21 next week and had loan spells with RB Leipzig and Sheffield United before this jaunt to Italy.
He becomes the second current Wales international to play his club football in Serie A after Juventus midfielder Aaron Ramsey.
However, because Ramsey was injured for international duty this month, Ampadu was unable to grill him on details about life in the Peninsula.
“Unfortunately, he wasn’t here on this camp so I haven’t managed to speak to him face to face. But whenever I have spoken to him he says the league is good and of a very high standard. It will be a good test.”