In the end and after many controversies lasting a month, Nicolo Zaniolo arrived in Turkey to wear the Galatasaray shirt. A poisonous farewell to Rome with the society he decided, by the will of the Friedkinsto adopt the hard line and exclude the player (“He is out of the project”), with Mourinho who had distanced himself (“When you don’t feel good in the family you have to go away, you have to find a solution”) and with the fans who had tried to attack him. Only three teammates ( Chris Smalling, Tammy Abraham e Leonardo Spinazzola) sent greetings to Zaniolo after the official transfer to Galatasaray.
“It’s Not What It Was Painted”
But now Zaniolo’s mother speaks, Frances Costa, and tells his truth about his farewell to Rome and the various negotiations on the January transfer market: from Milan to Tottenham, from Bournemouth to Galatasaray. “My son is not a madman or a traitor, he has been passed off as what he is not. He is a boy, he will have made his mistakes like everyone else, he will make others, we will make them, but that’s not what has been painted these past few weeks because it was convenient for someone,” Costa said in an interview with Sports Courier. “In the last month we had understood that it was over in Rome and that staying would have been impossible, unlivable. Before, however, Nicolò, and therefore we too, thought we would stay for a long time “, she added.
The node of the renewal with Rome
“After Tirana it happens that there is the possibility of thinking about a change of scenery, we talk about it with the club who let us know one thing: fifty or sixty millionfor them, is the value of the boy. But no offers are coming of that type and he stays, even happy. Just that expect a contract renewal with figures in line with that assessment. While contracts are made for his other comrades. But it’s not just a money issue. Nicolò, as the weeks go by, begins to realize that he is no longer part of the project. Roma informs him that they want to sell him in June, he begins to feel left out. And the light goes out.”
“We will always be grateful to the Romanisti”
“Neither I, nor my son, nor anyone in my family is angry with the fans. We will always be grateful to the Romanists, always respectful… The criticisms are there, but it’s not their fault. They believed what they were told. Those under the house? We filed a complaint against unknown persons, we’ll see.”
Milan, Tottenham, the “Bournemouth case” and the “Gala”
“Nicolò would have shrunk signing, or he would have asked for the same money as Roma, for Milan or Tottenham. But those companies have not found an agreement with the Giallorossi club. At that point there was the Bournemouth: It’s not true that they offered us five million a seasonwhen ever. First the no and then the yes? This is truebut when we called them back they had already taken another (Hamed Junior Traorè from Sassuolo, ndr). Il Galatasaray? “A choice that was almost immediate because they immediately made us feel trust and substance. They wanted Nicolò, they wanted to close, it wasn’t difficult“.