Alberto Aquilani, who spent three years at Liverpool, has been interviewed by Gianluca Di Marzio’s website this week.
The 34-year-old talked about his entire career, since his start at Roma to the point of finding himself without a club this season.
One of the topics was obviously his time at Anfield, having arrived in a €20m deal from Roma in 2009, where he found a squad full of stars.
“It was difficult,” Aquilani told Gianluca Di Marzio. “I was going to England, in a cold city, an important change, but I played with incredible players. Torres, Mascherano, Kuyt.”
Asked about Steven Gerrard, Aquilani smile and said: “One of the greatest I’ve played with. The fact that he was there influenced a lot, I’m not hiding it, he’s a champion.”
Aquilani turned down big clubs before joining the Reds. The report writes about old refusals to Arsenal and Chelsea, and the player claims that Inter and Juventus were also rejected at the time.
“Every year I received important offers, I said no to Inter and Juventus, with Roma we would decline everything.”
That, as Di Marzio says, was until Liverpool came along.
“That year I was injured, Roma had economic problems and had to make an important sale. Vucinic and I had several offers, so we went.”
“I hadn’t played for months, I had hurt myself, everything made me think that my adventure in Rome had come to an end. They were forced to sell me, but he didn’t kick me out. I want to reiterate it.
“I was 23, I was very young, my mother would come up and cook Amatriciana (a Roman pasta dish, heavy on tomato and pecorino). Macheda was also there, playing at United and we were there. We were Romans repatriated, we spoke in dialect, we were happy.”
Aquilani ended up making only 28 appearances for Liverpool. After his first season, he was loaned to Juventus for a year, and then spent another year on loan at Milan. In 2012, he was sold to Fiorentina in a €2m deal.
