Riccardo Saponara “shed tears” over Milan and reveals how often he was ready to give up before Empoli. “I am a firm believer in fate.”
The trequartista flopped at San Siro, but quickly rediscovered his confidence at the Stadio Castellani and has been practically unstoppable this season.
Riccardo Saponara “shed tears” over Milan and reveals how often he was ready to give up before Empoli. “I am a firm believer in fate.”
The trequartista flopped at San Siro, but quickly rediscovered his confidence at the Stadio Castellani and has been practically unstoppable this season.
“I am a firm believer in fate,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “If the talent scout Eldo Bencini hadn’t got a flat tyre and my friend hadn’t driven him to a pitch where I was testing out for a local side at the age of 16, perhaps I wouldn’t be a professional football player now.
“If when at Milan I hadn’t injured my knee, I wouldn’t have gone home for two weeks for rehabilitation, I wouldn’t have seen Giulia three or four nights in a row in my home town of Forlì or plucked up the courage to chat to her in a bar, we wouldn’t be together today.
“Was it my destiny that it should go badly at Milan? I don’t know, but it was a necessary step in my career and I don’t regret a single tear I shed. I had been signed by the club I’d supported since childhood, how could I not shed tears?”
Saponara reveals himself to be a very sensitive soul, one who came so close to throwing in the towel.
“At the age of 20, Empoli were relegated and the fans were protesting. My performances were like my mood: grey. I kept telling my father on the phone that I would give up and come home, then in the return leg of the play-out final something snapped within me.
“I never understood what it was, perhaps a dribble that worked or the crowd calling my name, but I found moves I didn’t know I could do and felt clearly that something good was just round the corner.
“The second moment was at Milan and I constantly told my father: ‘I’m just not up to it.’ Psychologically I hit rock bottom. I was even thinking of how to invest the money I’d earned, maybe start a new business, as I was convinced I couldn’t survive as a professional football player.
“Yet in my heart of hearts I knew this was my life, it has been in my blood since birth. They were negative thoughts I created because I couldn’t conceive of failure. The truth is I never did give up.
“I do still suffer from anxiety and my biggest fear is that I won’t be able to reach my potential as a player. It would feel like damnation, leaving work unfinished. I won’t find peace until I am completely realised at a big club.
“I had got there, at Milan, but just arriving isn’t enough. If you go close to an objective and don’t grasp it, that is what scares me.”
Saponara is widely expected to leave Empoli next summer with the likes of Juventus, Liverpool, Fiorentina and Napoli lining up.