Zirkzee: “God gave me a gift: playing good football. And I don’t want to waste it”

On the cover of Saturday’s Sportweek (on newsstands for 2.20 euros together with the Gazzetta) you will find the curls of Joshua Zirkzee, the Dutch striker of Bologna who with a good season is making several top Italian and European clubs tempted. We interviewed, photographed and videotaped him exclusively and he told us many things about himself that we didn’t know. Starting with faith, which he applies to football: “I was lucky enough that God gave me a gift: playing football well. And I don’t want to waste this talent. I am convinced that he has a plan for me.” Moreover, his second name, Orobosa, wanted by his Nigerian mother, means: “Destiny is in the hands of God”. But don’t expect a bigot: at 22 years old Joshua is a lively boy, who had a carefree childhood, not very inclined towards studies (“school was the thing I liked least”) and very much towards having fun: “My creativity was born from street football, where I played with friends. In Holland it is a value: every neighborhood has a Cruyff court, like basketball courts in America.” And even when at 16 he had to leave all this to go to Munich he didn’t suffer from nostalgia: “At the Bayern Campus they pampered us. We were a group of noisy teenagers and it wasn’t easy to manage, but I was really happy there. Then from one moment to the next I found myself in the dressing room with players who until the day before I had been using the PlayStation: I was lucky enough to find a great person, Thomas Muller, who helped me a lot to get into the first team. And when I saw my dad happy in the stands after his first goal in the Bundesliga it was a truly satisfying moment.” How to score at San Siro, after all: “It’s a fantastic stadium: playing well there, against Inter or Milan, is the best.”

Tottenham here

—

It’s a bit like the experience that two Italians are having in London: Guglielmo Vicario and Destiny Udogie, goalkeeper and defender in Ange Postecoglou’s ambitious Tottenham. We met them in the splendid Spurs stadium and they told us about their immediate inclusion. “There are no secrets, you just have to give your best every day – says Vicario -. Of course, playing in a club like this is different from those I’ve played in the past, expectations and many other things change. But football remains the same and it’s nice to compete every day with players of the highest quality.” Udogie, who at 21 years old found himself facing phenomena like Saka, Salah, Foden and others, knows something about this: “But the way of defending that I learned in Italy is definitely helping me.” Even though his coach, a priest of offensive play, continually asks him to advance, so much so that Destiny ends up playing on the forward line: “I don’t know if it’s the perfect role for me, I’m not used to it. But I often find myself there and I’m starting to settle in.”

beans, tennis in its journey

—

Sportweek then takes you to a tennis court in Turin. This is what Nicolò Fagioli, the Juventus player disqualified for seven months for betting on football, is trying to find himself as he follows a path to recovery from gambling addiction. In addition to the meetings with the therapist who follows him, the 23-year-old from Piacenza has picked up the racket again, an old passion, and is even taking lessons from a master to improve his shots. In the days of the shipwreck, tennis thus became a lifeboat, a way to use free time constructively and healthily after the training-match routine was interrupted. This gives him new certainties and gratifies him, with the return date in mind (Juve-Monza, last of the championship) and an idea that may seem crazy but has a famous and happy precedent.

Jean Pierre Papin’s Top 11

—

The Top 11 by Jean Pierre Papin and the mystery that takes us back to Bologna, but from 50 years ago, complete the football menu in our magazine on Saturday. As for the rest, in addition to our advice columns on fashion, food and wine and reviews, we offer you an interview with Paoletta Magoni, the first Italian to win an Olympic gold in alpine skiing (Sarajevo, 40 years ago) and a day on slopes of Cortina together with the greatest Italian skier, Deborah Compagnoni, who at more than fifty years old twirls on the snow like when she was twenty. Niki Lauda, ​​the driver who changed Formula 1, would turn 75 next week, so we dedicate the final portrait of this issue of Sportweek to him.