The Atalanta and Italy defender spoke to Cronache di Spogliatoio: “The last two years have turned my life upside down. I love basketball, billiards and I owe everything to Gasp”
The rising star of Italian football dribbles the compliments. “The last two years have turned my life upside down, but I don’t feel predestined, also because the only one is Charles Leclerc”. The 19-year-old Giorgio Scalvini, back from a season as a protagonist with the Atalanta shirt, is ready to lead the Italy Under-21 team in the European category: “Ever since I left tennis to devote myself to football, I’ve never felt a weight on my shoulders. I’ve been in the shadows. And even now that I see my name everywhere, I isolate myself in my bubble.”
growth
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The defender of the Dea, appreciated by the big names in European football, told Cronache di Spogliatoio with an awareness that betrays his young age: “If I’m here today and everyone is talking about me, it’s thanks to the ideas of coach Gian Piero Gasperini, who he spurred a lot – confessed the born in 2003 from Brescia -. He was very tenacious in making me what he believed I could be. And so I learned to manage the mentality”. But among the coaches conquered by Scalvini’s qualities there is also coach Roberto Mancini. “The national team is a great group of friends. After the match against Germany, I was sitting in the dressing room with Gnonto. I had just made my debut, he had become the youngest goalscorer in the history of Italy. While our team-mates arrived, we We were in a trance about what happened.”
anecdotes
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During the interview Scalvini opened his drawer of memories, pulling out a wealth of anecdotes: “In the Atalanta youth team I challenged the singer Blanco, who was a Feralpisalò defender at the time. The debut in Serie A against Udinese was the “The only match of my career that my father didn’t see at the stadium. Once I asked Yoshida of Sampdoria for a shirt because he had made my brother’s fortune in fantasy football. I missed the first call-up for the senior national team due to Covid, the second time for the finals of the Primavera championship, while the third time, the good one, the Italy team manager called me while I was at school for an exam”.
not just football
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But there is not only football in Scalvini’s life: “With Zortea, Ruggeri and Okoli we learned to play billiards. My passion is basketball and I often play triples on the pitch. Having the same sponsor as LaMelo Ball, I had his shoes sent to me.” And then the music: “I had the intro of the second part of Tedua’s ‘Clone’ record engraved on one of my shin guards: I listen to it before every game to remind myself never to look at what the others are doing”.
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