The Rossoneri midfielder: “At Chelsea I played little and out of role. Here I found my light-heartedness again. We feel we are the strongest.” The passion for tennis and life in Italy: “Florenzi the craziest, Leao the most fashionable”
Trap playlists. Instagram. The girls’ numbers. This is what we expect to find in a footballer’s smartphone. Instead Ruben Loftus-Cheek clicks on the Books icon and over there, after a couple of scrolls, a book by the Dalai Lama appears. Expected like a cloudless week in London, where he grew up. RLC in person is – first impression – giant: an NBA physique. Then, a great calm sea: he never raises his voice, smiles placidly, speaks composedly like a man at peace with himself. Looking at the photos of him, he is Ruben Loftus-chic: he dresses Off-White and Gucci with the same model elegance. To hear him speak, he is Ruben Loftus-chill, in the sense of “relaxed”: he has not lived three lives in one like Pulisic, he is not electric like Chukwueze, but he talks about meditation, he explains that happiness is in normal days with friends, he says that Milan gave him his freedom back. And freedom, in football and in life, is the most important of things. Let’s start with a summer interview with Times. The headline is strong: “At Chelsea I felt like a caged animal”.