Interviewed by Mediaset after Austria’s match against Slovenia, where he played as a starter, Inter’s striker spoke about several topics: his role at Inter, his penalty error against Young Boys, and criticism from fans.
Here were his words:
PLAYING TIME – Here, I come and play, at Inter I play less because there are great forwards. It’s difficult for me because all my life I have always played from the start, but I understand the coach’s decisions. I do everything possible at Inter to help Lautaro, Thuram, Taremi and Correa. We are a team of five, we try to help each other, I want the best possible for Inter, which is not the best possible for me right now, but Inter is everything, it’s my team and I do everything to help my team.
GOALS – Scudetto and Champions? I think we can do well because we know how strong we are, even if other teams are not bad: if you look at the standings now there are 5 teams with 25 points…Our goal is the Scudetto, but we want to go as far as possible in the Champions. We are Inter, we want a lot.
MISSED PENALTY – The missed penalty against Young Boys? I could not explain that situation, for me it was a disaster because I missed. Of course I wanted to score the 1-0: you don’t play much, then the coach gives you the opportunity and you want to do well…Ok it’s a penalty, but even if we then won, it was my fault. I criticize myself a lot, I never criticize others, I always look at myself first. They were 2-3 difficult days for me, then I had an infection and couldn’t see anything from my left eye, it was serious. Now I’m back, I’m fine and I hope to play at Inter: I will do everything possible to help the team and move on.
FAN CRITICISM – The fans complaining about me? If I would make the choice to return to Inter? You look at those fans, but the true fans at Inter love me, ever since I left, I followed the team. I always say I didn’t win the treble, but I’m proud of that time. There are fans who say I’m old and always broken, but that’s not the case. It’s not that I want to go on the field and hurt myself, it depends on my body, throughout my career I always played from the start, now I play the last minutes and it’s a different thing for my body. But even if I play 2 minutes I give everything. Would I take another penalty? Certainly, even if Calhanoglu is the penalty taker.
