“When I arrived at Watford I changed a lot, I grew up” – Striker explains how Hornets move affected him

Udinese striker Fernando Forestieri has detailed how he had to grow up quickly when he arrived at Watford.

The striker joined the Serie A side on a free transfer from Sheffield Wednesday in the summer after five years at Hillsborough.

They were his second English team after Watford, whom he originally joined on loan from Udinese in August 2012 before making the move to Vicarage Road permanent in January the following year.

He went on to make 92 appearances in all competitions for Watford, scoring 21 goals and registering 23 assists during his two years there.

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The Hornets gave Forestieri his first taste of English football, a radical change for a player who’d spent his early career at Newell’s and Boca Juniors in Argentina before turning out for several sides in Italy.

It was undoubtedly a significant change for him and one that he says forced him to grow up in a short space of time.

“When I arrived at Watford I changed a lot, I grew up,” he told Udinese Tonight, relayed by TuttoMercatoWeb. 

“The agent had left me just before; my grandfather had just died. I arrived at Watford on my own, so I grew up at that time. I made the jump.

“English football is very different from Italian football. I remember the first game I played in England. They fouled me, I was on the ground, and the fans kept shouting “go, go”.