Portuguese newspaper A Bola has given an entire page to the Norwich City fullback Ivo Pinto on Wednesday.
Now completing two years at the club, the player finds himself in a very different situation from when he arrived.
Signed from Dinamo Zagreb in January 2016, Pinto arrived to play in the Premier League, but couldn’t enjoy England’s top flight much, as the Canaries were soon relegated to the Championship.
But the player never ran away from the challenge, and after some time adapting to local football, he’s now Norwich City’s captain, and seems very proud of his new role at the club.
Asked by A Bola about captaining the team, Pinto said: “It’s been normal. It is a phase that I embraced with all my affection and pride. When I was given the armband I was here for only a year and a half, I arrived when the club was still in the Premier League. I have tried to be myself and help my colleagues and club achieve their goals.”
Regarding his motivational speeches for a time when the team is full of high and lows, he said: “I always try to show the team that it’s not because we’re in negative form that we have to change everything. I’ve always been a player who had to work a lot to achieve my goals. I try to put this in the players. It’s at these times that we have to believe and work more and more, even when the pass or the crossing doesn’t work. It’s in these moments that the real warriors are seen.”
And he doesn’t claim to feel more pressure for being the captain: “Not really (laughs). I like the responsibility of being captain, of assuming that role. There may be some pressure, but it’s not an obstacle for me. I am prepared to continue to be a captain if that is the case. I’m very proud.”
As Pinto was interviewed before the Chelsea game, the importance of the clash even made it to the headline. But he still had a lot to say about Norwich’s real goals in the season.
“We are recovering: we have not lost any of the last five games and we only conceded one goal. We had a great time where we were virtually unbeatable. Then we had a more negative moment, but with the return of some players we got it right again, to be a real team and the results reappeared.”
“Yes, the minimum goal is to reach the play-off. The odds are not as good as they had been, but we are improving. We knew it would be difficult at the beginning to get results. There was a very radical change in the club this year: experienced athletes who left, new manager and new players coming from other leagues. We continue to believe and the objective is really reaching this play-off.”
