Roger Ibañez believes that Roma must try their hardest to win a league title in the next few years.
The 23-year-old Brazilian centre back has been one of the Giallorossi’s most important players this campaign under coach Jose Mourinho, starting in 18 of their 19 Serie A outings in the first half of the season.
Speaking in an interview with Sky Sports, Ibañez first touched on what he expects from 2022, saying “I want to continue like this and improve a bit more. We can improve every day.”
The 23-year-old Brazilian defender has a strong relationship with Mourinho, noting that “I speak Portuguese and also Italian so I can understand him well and it helps me. Since he arrived he has always been close to us, he is always close to all of us players as much as possible. He knows everything about us players and always tries to help us.”
He explained where his fast pace came from. “When I was a kid they said I was fast, 2 to 3 years ago I started to really work on it with a physiotherapist at home.”
Ibañez discussed his emotions following Roma’s impressive 4-1 win over Atalanta in Bergamo earlier this month. He previously spent two years contract to La Dea. “I thank Atalanta, but now I’m a Romanista. The match in Bergamo was beautiful, more special than the others.
“We have many strong aspects but we have to improve not just one thing, we have to work on what happened last year. When we concede a goal we have to work on our reaction. I’m sure we will succeed.”
He explained what he likes about living in Rome, noting that “Rome is like Brazil. To me it looks like Rio de Janeiro.”
Finally, Ibañez discussed what he wants to win with Roma. ‘Everything! But we have to try to do our best and try to win a Scudetto.” He concluded.
The 23-year-old Ibañez, who is contracted to Roma until 2025, has made 27 appearances across all competitions so far this season, for a total of 2224 minutes. In that time, he has scored four goals and helped the side keep 10 clean sheets.
#Ibañez: "Vorrei vincere tutto con la Roma. #Mourinho vicino alla squadra a 360 gradi"https://t.co/Er33IV7pAC#ASRoma #RomanewsEU pic.twitter.com/0J17AsTOa1
— Romanews EU (@romanewseu) December 27, 2021