Despite bring pretty happy for his return to England, Brazilian goalkeeper Diego Cavalieri doesn’t seem very confident that he will have any chances to play for Crystal Palace this season.
The 35-year-old simply hopes he can leave a good impression at the London club, so he can maybe prolong his stay in the country, as revealed in an interview to ESPN Brasil this week.
Cavalieri has spoken to João Castelo Branco in the ‘Correspondentes Premier’ podcast, and was quite honest about how things have been for him.
The goalkeeper left Rio de Janeiro in the middle of the summer, and it was obviously quite a shock to land in London in such a heavy winter.
“It’s true. The beginning was a bit difficult. Because I left Rio, it was really hot. I arrived here in the winter, they hadn’t had a winter like this for a long time, so they said,” Cavalieri told ESPN.
“But I’m happy for the chance, being able to return to England, to the Premier League. A very competitive football, I really like the mentality, the way things work here. I had the opportunity to be at Liverpool a while ago. So when the opportunity arose, I didn’t think twice. Because like I said, it’s a place I like a lot, besides a very competitive football.”
About getting a chance to play for Crystal Palace this season, Cavalieri said: “Now it’s to work, have patience too. Even because I came from a situation that was complicated. From my Fluminense process. I hadn’t been training with a ball for two months. I was training, I was physically well, training daily, but field and ball, that was missing. So it takes a little time too, for you to get to a very good condition. So I’m working hard every day to do this fast.”
Then he claimed that all this work may have a result in the future, as long as he gets a chance to stay at Crystal Palace after the end of the season: “And it’s a short contract, right? Until the end of the season. It’s practically two more months. But working, donating myself, you never know when you have a chance or not. So the important thing is to be prepared. And also to show my potential, my professionalism too, who knows, even if I don’t have the chance to play, you can get to the end of this contract and renew, who knows. So now the focus is to make up for the lost time I’ve been spending there and trying to show my potential here day by day.”
