Former Fiorentina winger Joaquin has “wonderful memories” of Serie A, even if "I'd never tracked back before!"
The 36-year-old spent two seasons with the Viola, before returning to his boyhood club Real Betis in the summer of 2015.
“I have wonderful memories,” Joaquin told Gazzetta dello Sport’s Extra Time supplement.
“I was hesitant because I’d never left Spain before and I have deep roots, especially here in Andalusia.
Former Fiorentina winger Joaquin has “wonderful memories” of Serie A, even if "I'd never tracked back before!"
The 36-year-old spent two seasons with the Viola, before returning to his boyhood club Real Betis in the summer of 2015.
“I have wonderful memories,” Joaquin told Gazzetta dello Sport’s Extra Time supplement.
“I was hesitant because I’d never left Spain before and I have deep roots, especially here in Andalusia.
“Then I got a house in the centre of Florence, near the Ponte Vecchio, and my life changed.
“You need to learn how to adapt on the pitch too, Italy is different. It’s a slower, less direct, more controlled football. Tactics come first, here it’s technique.
“It’s hard to score and to attack, you have to think more and move differently.
“In the first year [Coach Vincenzo] Montella didn’t see me much. Then one day at the end of November in Verona he asked me to control the whole wing.
“I’d grown up on the wing, looking back at the halfway line as a hostile, impassible frontier. I’d never tracked back in my life, I’d never defended.”