Inter loanee Radja Nainggolan said coach Antonio Conte ‘gave me eight minutes and pointed me out as the responsible for everything’.
The Belgian has returned to Cagliari on loan for the remainder of 2020-21 and revealed he was hurt when the Nerazzurri coach gave him the blame after ‘only eight minutes’ on the pitch.
Inter loanee Radja Nainggolan said coach Antonio Conte ‘gave me eight minutes and pointed me out as the responsible for everything’.
The Belgian has returned to Cagliari on loan for the remainder of 2020-21 and revealed he was hurt when the Nerazzurri coach gave him the blame after ‘only eight minutes’ on the pitch.
“At the Nerazzurri I had a great coach, but I was hurt when he only gave me eight minutes of the match and then pointed me out as the responsible for everything,” he told Il Corriere dello Sport.
“What could I do in eight minutes? I didn’t start any controversy then, and I don’t do it now. That’s how it went.
“I’m healthy, whole. I didn’t miss a training, I’m never a minute late.”
The former Roma midfielder added that Nicolò Zaniolo’s case reminds him of his own incident on New Year’s Eve a few years ago and encouraged the Italy international to ‘respond on the pitch’.
“I see that he’s going through what I have suffered. They have put him in their sights,” he said. “I paid for it. I want to say it clearly: I was wrong, I didn’t have to drink, I didn’t have to behave like that.
“But who doesn’t make a mistake in life? I see myself in Zaniolo again because I’m attacked too, trolled in social media. It’s easy to get caught up, the only way is to ignore it, not care.
“I’m not a teacher of life who gives advice. But the only way he can answer is on the pitch. For the rest, he must be strong and move on. He will respond the attackers with the first games he plays.”
Nainggolan tested positive for COVID-19 in October and felt lucky he recovered in only 10 days, continuing to train at home, but the Belgian is concerned about the impact of coronavirus.
“This year on the pitch, we are defending much more than a result. We are defending the League from the virus. It killed football, our lives and finally the world.
“I’m thinking of those who no longer have a job or had to close their activities. I would [take the vaccine], even if I should be immune now since I had it.
“I hope the first to be vaccinated are the weakest and the elderly.”