Alessio Romagnoli prepares to face his old club Milan and has no regrets about leaving for Lazio, even if he maintains the Rossoneri ‘could’ve been clearer’ with him.
It kicks off on Tuesday January 24 at 19.45 GMT at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
Centre-back Romagnoli grew up as a Lazio supporter and never hid his love for the club, even when he was owned by their arch-rivals Roma.
When his contract with Milan ran down, he jumped at the chance to join the Biancocelesti and make a childhood dream come true.
“It is a wonderful feeling for a person to play for the club he loves and to be at home too,” Romagnoli told DAZN.
“I still maintain the most important decision was finding a serious sporting project with a strong squad and coach, because I want to win with Lazio. It is great just to be here, but winning is fundamental for me.
“My father and my grandmother passed on the love of Lazio, we used to watch the games together. I always wanted to join this club and I didn’t want to do it too late, when I could no longer give my best. I had other good offers on the transfer market, but Lazio have a competitive squad and I felt the time was right.”
Romagnoli left Milan as a free agent when his contract ran down last summer and his rapport with the club had deteriorated in the last few months, seeing him drop to the bench as they marched towards the Scudetto.
“Winning the Scudetto as captain of Milan was wonderful after years of disappointment and a lot of criticism, many dark times. I don’t care about criticism, though, as they didn’t know I was often struggling to train with a sports hernia from November onwards, let alone what condition I was in when playing. I always remained focused on what I had to do on the field.
“Milan had made me an offer, but they preferred other choices, I made my decisions too. Perhaps it would’ve been better if they had been clearer with me, so the negotiations didn’t drag on until the end. However, I have only good memories of Milan, they were seven fantastic years.”
It was Sinisa Mihajlovic who demanded Romagnoli join him at Milan after they had worked together during a loan spell at Sampdoria, so the defender paid tribute to the coach who died last month from leukaemia.
“I had a sincere and wonderful rapport with Sinisa. He was real, he had heart. He was fundamental for me, allowing me to play in a prestigious team like Samp and always putting his faith in me, despite my youthful errors.
“He wrote a message asking if I wanted to come to Milan and I said yes. He was fundamental in my career.”
Unfortunately we got to see the best of Alessio during the disappointing years when only he and Gigio were worthy of the Milan shirt. Optimum professional right up to the end.
He was a serious person. Can’t fault him for his effort, though he didn’t have enough quality to play for Milan in the end. No hard feelings. He was on high wages when sitting on the bench while other players with less wage were starting for the team. The separation was inevitable.
Quality he has the legs not so much. Happy for him nonetheless!