Ex-SPAL player Salvatore Esposito reflects on collaboration with Daniele De Rossi | OneFootball

Former SPAL player and current Spezia midfielder Salvatore Esposito looked back on his own brief collaboration with Daniele De Rossi when the latter was in charge of the Ferrara-based club.

In an interview with Cronache di Spogliatoio, Esposito – who briefly played for De Rossi before moving to Spezia in the January window of 2023 – spoke highly of the Roma technician.

“When we join a team, on the first day we usually sing, none of us would have allowed ourselves to ask him to sing in front of everyone, but he did. He didn’t want us to call him mister or coach, but simply Daniele.”

“Many guys who played with me at Spal still talk to Daniele on WhatsApp today. He arrived in Ferrara as Daniele De Rossi, he could have said or asked anything but instead he tried to begin with humility. At the end of training he would stop with everyone to talk or joke.”

“Someone like De Rossi can only do well after stepping in following another coach’s sacking: he rekindles the enthusiasm that the team had lost. Even by just being himself he gets everybody motivated right away and that’s what happened at Roma.”

“His ideas are there for all to see. I am very sincere and I tell you that Daniele is a coach meant for a top club than perhaps for a Serie B team. He has some really important ideas, offensive football like De Zerbi or Guardiola. But in addition to his qualities as a coach, Daniele’s human qualities are something exceptional, you don’t expect it from such an important character, humility, sympathy, trying to put the players in the best possible conditions. This is his most important weapon.”

“His staff – Giacomazzi, Mancini, they are truly fantastic people. Daniele has everything, but his staff is also important. I hope for him that he stays as many years as possible at Roma because it is his dream.”

“I wish him all the best in the world first to the person and then to the coach. We have a relationship that goes beyond football, I met him on the national team and it was love at first sight. He has always been my idol and he saw some qualities in me that he liked, we hit it off straight away.”