Atalanta full-back Davide Zappacosta says he never believes the rumours that coach Gian Piero Gasperini was going to leave the club, and explained why La Dea are so important to him as a club. The veteran Italian international was speaking with La Gazzetta dello Sport about the injuries that plagued his season, and touched on why he’s not afraid of having competition for his role at Atalanta, as well as the importance of qualifying for Europe next season:
Certainly, a very different July 3 than the one in 2022…
“A year ago I was injured, on vacation: I was not giving myself peace. My knee, after the 2019 ACL surgery, needs specific work in the gym: I got screwed by an exercise that was perhaps too “loaded,” I felt a twinge in the rectus femoris. I thought it was a minor thing, and instead between everything I lost three months.”
You won’t do that exercise again this summer….
“I’ve been training for about ten days, though. Never stop, I didn’t even do it at the end of the season: sprained ankle, but gritted my teeth to play the last four games.”
Not just you.
“Indeed: but when you push everyone in one direction, everyone feels the duty to go further.”
Now you will do “real” preparation for the season: how much will it change for you?
“A lot. I get into condition pretty quickly, always have, but being able to be on the same level as others right away makes a difference.”
Did you ever believe in Gasperini’s farewell to Atalanta?
“No, he was always the first to push, to never give up.”
And was being able to return to Europe an even stronger push than we imagined?
“It was neither obvious nor easy: we did an extraordinary thing, we needed an extraordinary push.”
You won the Europa League with Chelsea…
“And in the final with Arsenal: even then the level was very high, let alone now. I have that trophy in my heart: I played much more in Europe than in the Premier League, I put a lot of myself into it. And in Europe everything is more. Comparison with other ways of seeing and interpreting football makes you grow: as a player and as a team. Do you pay for the fatigue? Maybe a little at the beginning, but then playing every three days helps you.”
Last season you played almost more on the left and scored more goals than assists: is this your new football life?
“In the last three years, actually: not just last year. It changes the way I see the field, the game: swerving in the middle I go on my strong foot and so I find it easier to kick.”
On the flanks, however, Atalanta seems intent on strengthening: Kolasinac is on the way, there is talk of Bakker.
“When new, and strong, players arrive, it’s always good: we all raise the bar, and then the coach decides.”
In any case, not playing as much, you scored 4 goals: it means you can score more.
“In my career I’ve always stopped at four: maybe this time I’ll bypass the quota….”
What can Loftus-Cheek, your former partner at Chelsea, give Milan?
“A lot of physicality, leg and strength: but in quality.”
You, like Jacobs and others, train your mind with Nicoletta Romanazzi.
“I started working with her when I broke my knee and she completely changed my way of thinking. The most important lesson, for football: I have to stay balanced on what happens to me, without being influenced by others’ judgments. Today I can only focus on myself: I know what I need to do, when I make mistakes, what I need to improve in.”
But today, do you think you have given and taken more or less than he planned when you returned to Atalanta?
“Bergamo welcomed me twice, first as a boy and then as a man, in Bergamo I took some of the most important steps of my life, from my debut in Serie A to the decision to get married, Atalanta gave me back the right confidence. Today they have an important place in my heart: here, I like to answer them like this.”
