Andrea Ranocchia has spoken to the Italian about his time at Hull City and how much he enjoyed his time in English football.
The 36 year old spent six months on loan with Hull City during the 2016/17 season, with it not ending on a good point as the club were relegated.
Speaking to Sitis Commesse, the former Inter Milan captain was asked about his spell with Hull City and how playing in the Premier League differed to Serie A.
“It was one of the best experiences of my career because I got to understand and experience football that you play in and live for, you understand why it is the first to play football in the world, why all that money is going around and why so many players want to go and play in that league.
“There is this great passion, a healthy passion compared to the Italian championship, there is a healthy passion for sport. All the fans try to support the team at all times. I’ll give you an example, the last game when we were relegated with Hull City, all of us were naturally in the dressing room feeling sad. After a quarter of an hour, the fans call us out. I’m used to Italy, so I thought “now they’re going to challenge us, they’re going to insult us”. Instead, they made us go around the pitch, everyone applauded us, all of us,” said the former Hull City man.
Ranocchia was a surprise signing for Hull City during the 2017 transfer window, but needed to go out on loan in order to get regular first team football. He’d previously been loaned out to Sampdoria from Inter Milan during the 2015-16 season after losing his place under Roberto Mancini.
The Italian defender made his debut for the Tigers against Manchester United and went on to make 16 appearances for the club, scoring 2 goals. However, he was unable to prevent the club dropping back down into the Championship.
He continued to struggle to get regular first team football on his return to the San Siro and he eventually finished his career at Monza. Ranocchia also made 21 appearances for the Italian national side.
