Scott McTominay has published an open letter to Napoli and Manchester United fans, explaining his move to the Italian side this summer.
Written on Napoli’s official website but relayed by Calcio Napoli 24, McTominay said “I felt the fire inside me” when making the move this summer.
The midfielder brought an end to a long association with Manchester United at the end of August, joining Napoli in a €30.5m deal.
He had been at Old Trafford since he was a youngster, rising through the various youth ranks at the club before going on to make 255 appearances in the first team, scoring 29 goals and registering eight assists.
He was not a firm fixture under Erik ten Hag, though, and so made the move to Naples as part of the rebuild under Antonio Conte.
He’s been welcomed like a hero by Napoli fans, who greeted him at the airport when he arrived and provided a rapturous welcome for their new signing.
There has also been hype in the media around the Scottish international, with various journalists and pundits lavishing the former Manchester United man with praise over the last few weeks.
He’s already at God like status before he’s truly settled and it seems that’s not gone unnoticed by McTominay, who is very much feeling the love.
“My name is Scott McTominay, I come from Lancaster, England and I am a central midfielder for Napoli.
“My life and career have been focused exclusively on football. My family did everything they could to help me travel across England to play football with Manchester United as a child. Then over the years I played in all categories until I made my debut in the first team and played a few games.
“I was a very competitive child, I would say to the point of being too competitive for a child. The feeling of defeat always hurts more than the feeling of pride when you win. So for me it is important to have control of this aspect. Obviously now that I’m here, I want to play very well and focus on helping the team. My football idols were Wayne Rooney and Zinedine Zidane, players like that.
“I always watched them a lot and wanted to pay attention to everything they did in the game and try to emulate them even as a child. The emotions that football has given me have been so many. I love this game, I love playing it and I have a great desire to win and be successful. I want to give my best every time I train and every time I play to give the best of myself, to help my teammates and the coach.
“The pride of playing here is really special and when I found out that Napoli was interested in me I felt the fire inside me. I wanted to come here and push as much as possible because the fans are crazy, I would say they are some of the best fans I have ever seen. Incredible. I can’t talk enough about the fans, the people, the city and the welcome that my teammates and coaches gave me.
“When a coach of Conte’s calibre wants to bring you into his team, it fills you with confidence and the desire to show him that you are capable of giving him a lot. The conversations we have had between us have all been very positive. He is very demanding, which is very, very positive for a player of my age.
“I am 27 now, I am not a kid but I am not old either. So I want to be pushed to the max and I want to play to the best of my ability to show that I care a lot and that I want to do really well. Yes, Italian football is different and I really enjoyed it. Obviously there are a lot of tactical aspects that you have to understand and study…. But for me football is football. If you apply yourself and train properly and you are fit enough to come in and you are willing to learn, then you can adapt quite quickly to the way the coach wants to play and the type of game the league is playing.
“So for me, it’s about focusing and doing my best, learning as much as I can in a short period of time to keep up and doing my best with a smile on my face, hopefully making the fans happy. My biggest dream as a person is to be happy. I think happiness is the best thing to aspire to in life, and that’s the only thing I focus on and try to be happy with my family, with my friends and with my girlfriend. It’s very important for me to always have a smile on my face. And in the end, when you have a smile on your face, you also play better football.
“In my free time, if I go to visit family, I like to spend it with my sister and her kids, my parents, my girlfriend and her family. I like to play golf, but when you train hard you can’t play golf because you have to keep your legs rested. I like to play pool, ping pong, darts. And also running. My father was a very avid runner when he was younger. He still runs now and I still can’t beat some of his five-kilometer and ten-mile times. And he reminds me of that a lot.
“Yeah, my whole family is very ambitious about sports and they take it very seriously. Something about me that no one knows about… I play backgammon, the game… It’s a board game. And maybe when I retire from soccer, I’ll be a professional backgammon player. It’s about thinking. It’s a strategic game of Greek and Turkish origin. So, yeah, I love it. I play it all the time. All the time.
“Italian is not easy to follow because… I speak fast but when I hear people speaking Italian they speak really fast and it’s hard to understand exactly what they’re saying. But as time goes by, in the last two or three weeks, I’ve learned something during the training sessions, in the hotel and in the city, and when I get a house I want to get a private tutor, because I really want to learn. I want to be able to understand everything the coach and the players are saying, which will also help me on the pitch. And in general, knowing other languages is an important skill to have in life.
“My dream is to win the Scudetto with Napoli, to win trophies and be successful. I just want to do my best to help the team, fight for the future and push my career to the max, I want to be as fit as possible and train as hard as I can for the rest of my career, which I hope will be very long.
“Hello to all Napoli fans, I’m sorry that my Neapolitan is not very good, I hope to learn very soon. Thank you so much for the warm welcome, I am very happy to be here and ready to work for you. Thank you!”
