Jack Bonaventura explains how he beat stress, is studying to be a Coach and is a “masochistic” player at Milan.
The midfielder takes on his former club Atalanta on Sunday at 14.00 UK time (13.00 GMT), click here for a match preview.
“It was in Bergamo that my teammates started calling me Jack,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Jack Bonaventura explains how he beat stress, is studying to be a Coach and is a “masochistic” player at Milan.
The midfielder takes on his former club Atalanta on Sunday at 14.00 UK time (13.00 GMT), click here for a match preview.
“It was in Bergamo that my teammates started calling me Jack,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Aside from Andrea Poli, I don’t think anyone ever calls me Giacomo. For my family I was always Gia or Giacomì, while I think to this day there are some who don’t know my real name.
“Arriving at Milan was much easier than I had expected, perhaps because I always realised you can have talent, but need to work on the defensive movement. That doesn’t come naturally. Perhaps the only thing I miss is the sense of light relief in the locker room.”
Bonaventura discussed his love for tennis and how it can help him become a better football player.
“I tend to observe all athletes carefully, trying to understand how they move, get information on how they train, but with a tennis player you get more. Tennis forces you to concentrate on the tiniest detail, so requires incredible mental preparation.
“In tennis, above all, you are alone and have to make as few unforced errors as possible, otherwise there is no respite.
“If I think back to how I felt about games in my first years at Atalanta, it feels like a walk in the park now. I can play football with the clear mind of someone who has realised too many elements decide a result to concentrate only on what you do.
“I still seek perfection, but in another way. Before I detested normality and wanted to prove I was stronger than everyone, being so self-critical that it was actually hurtful.
“There were two Coaches who really helped me and I was fortunate to work with them at the right time. Francesco Rocca made us wake up at 6am, eat very little and he’d show us how hard football was by pointing out his knee, which had been wrecked.
“Stefano Colantuono told me off to the point where I was in tears and would drop me on purpose to see how I’d react. The more I gave everything I had, the more I’d be a mental wreck.
“Yet, even though my perspective has now changed, I still say football stresses me out more than anything else, but it also gives me the most pleasure.
“I might be a masochist, but I like to be physically pushed to the limits in my work. If I end a training session or match exhausted, then I’m happy, because I feel I’ve given it my all.
“This is why if I hadn’t been a football player, perhaps I would’ve worked as a labourer, like so many of my hometown friends. Mind you, I probably would’ve ended up working in my family’s restaurant.
“As a child I had many dreams, wanting to be an electrician, then a lawyer or a doctor, all occupations that gave me a sense of calm and economic independence.
“Being a Coach is certainly not a calm life, but it does intrigue me. I do already have that in my mind and I’m preparing for it, studying the Coaches I work with.
“If I have questions, I don’t ask them, but members of their staff. I watch carefully to see how they prepare for a game, the rapport they have with players, and I take mental notes.”