The former Manchester United defender
is loving his new life in Rome
“It’s gone better
than I could ever
have imagined”
CHRIS SMALLING
Christmas this year was very
different for Roma defender
Chris Smalling. Rather than
return to the frost and fog of
Manchester, the Englishman and his family,
together with friends, spent a glorious sun-
blest festive break in his new home on the
ancient Via Appia in Rome.
And it would be a mistake to imagine
the 30-year-old as some sort of Napoleon,
languishing in exile on St Helena, wondering
why he no longer plays for either England or
Manchester United.
When United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
told him in August that he would no longer be an
automatic first-choice selection, Smalling knew
what he wanted to do. Solskjaer told him that
there would be plenty of football for him, but that
meant “maybe half the games”, says Smalling.
So when a £3million loan offer came in from
Roma he jumped at it. One morning he was in
Manchester talking it through with Solskjaer,
the next day he was in Italy talking to Roma’s
Portuguese coach Paulo Fonseca. It was all
done and dusted in 48 hours.
“It was a little bit daunting at first,” recalls
Smalling. “For someone who had lived all his
life in England it was quite a big change in a
matter of days.
“But it was an experience that I was looking
forward to, and when the opportunity came, and
my family was up for it, then I didn’t want to have
regrets about not taking it.
“At this point it has gone better than I could
ever have imagined.”
Smalling was rated Roma’s best player by
sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport in January’s
1-1 derby draw with Lazio, although he feels that
“nine times out of 10, Roma should have won
that game”.
That was by no means the first time the critics
had rated him Roma’s top performer. For much
of this season he has looked poised, assured and
totally authoritative, winning a lot of approval.
Of course, there is nothing Italians appreciate
more than a good defender and of his initial
impressions of Serie A he says: “I find it very
competitive. When you watch it from England
and you see Juventus winning every year it
doesn’t seem that way, but when you come^
here you find that it is very competitive.
“Even the smaller teams are not easy to break
down, there are no easy games.”
Smalling, Romelu Lukaku and Christian
Eriksen are the most recent high-profile recruits
to a league which landed one of the biggest stars
of all last season in Cristiano Ronaldo. He might
be 35 now, but the Portuguese was pretty
unstoppable as he helped Juve to a 2-1 win
against Smalling and his team-mates at the
Olimpico just before Christmas. At one point
Ronaldo prompted a gasp of enthusiastic
approval from fans when he gave Smalling the
slip. Generously, even the defender himself wasimpressed, explaining: “Ronaldo goes quiet for
three or four games and everyone is saying he
is past it – and then he goes and scores eight
goals in six games.
“He is someone who is special. He could
rest on his laurels, given what he has already
achieved, but he still has that drive. That is
what makes him so great.”
Smalling has clearly adapted comfortably to
Italy, yet not all British exports have settled so
well. Back in 1961, Jimmy Greaves scored nine
goals in his first 12 league games for Milan
but was back in England by Christmas. Then
there was Ian Rush, whose form never reached
Liverpool levels during his one and only season
with an admittedly poor Juventus.
To be fair, others such as Irishman Liam Brady,
also in the 1980s, did much better when it came
to integration. Key to settling in is to learn Italian
and Smalling has already set out on that road,
revealing: “Here at the club you could almost
get by without Italian because a lot of the
staff speak English, but I wanted to be able
to communicate and make that effort.
“It would be nice, come the end of the
season, to have picked up a language.”
In the beginning, most of his communication
with coach Fonseca was in English, which the
Portuguese speaks well. However, as time has
gone by, he finds team talks and training sessions
in Italian cause no problems since he has long
since picked up key words such as “left, right,