What is Chivu asking of you? To improve even further compared with last year. We want to pick up where we left off, so by playing our best football. It’s an intense training camp. Some players handle it better, some get a little more tired, and some need more time to find their perfect fitness.
And what is he asking of you in particular? To help the team with my own qualities. Now that Lauti is missing to make myself heard a little more and act a bit like the captain. From the very first day mister arrived, he has always shown me trust and treated me incredibly well.
You have lived many different lives at Inter: you were the young player to discover, then became the revelation, followed by a key pillar of the team and finally vice-captain. As you look ahead to next season, what phase are you entering? I’m heading into a season in which I’m trying to develop a slightly different style of play, since my body sometimes responds differently. I’m trying to play a slightly ‘smarter’ game in terms of managing myself, being more conservative. The way we play, with the wing-backs helping us push forward, allows me to do that. I’m 29 now, not 23 like I was when I arrived.
This age - and above all your seven years at Inter - make you a point of reference. What is it like to be seen as an example? The ‘senior’ players should always be examples, but young players can be too. It’s a matter of working hard and putting yourself at the service of the team. Regardless, I don’t feel that I necessarily have to be a point of reference, but if someone wants to talk to me, I’m happy to. So I don’t know whether ‘example’ is the right word, perhaps I’m more of a source of inspiration because of my career here.
Speaking of young players and his department, Sučić made a very good impression at the World Cup. When Petar touches the ball, you realize that he has football inside him. He has carved out an important role for himself here and has become a starter for his national team, which has played excellent World Cups and Euros in recent years.
Stanković has returned to the midfield. Did that surprise you? Alek has always been a mature guy, but now even more so. He left his comfort zone, namely Inter, and has grown a lot. He has great qualities, and I’m sure he’ll help us during the season.
And Massolin? He has tremendous physicality and very good technique. Players who combine those two qualities are very difficult to find.
And what should the fans expect from Pio, another player born in 2005 whom you have known for longer? Even though he’s young, he has shown that he is a very strong player and very important for Inter and the national team. That’s why everyone is always talking about him. But when that happens, you do something good and people raise you up like a god, then you make a mistake and they criticize you. It isn’t easy, especially when you’re young and in the current situation of Italian football, with the national team not doing well. It creates pressure. But I know him well and I know he can handle it.
Does the Inter contingent in the Azzurri squad help him in that regard? Yes, we try to give him advice, since we’ve experienced those situations during our careers. And Pio is a striker who makes a difference for us because he has qualities that are different from everyone else. He has goals in his blood; he can suddenly find the back of the net. So we have to look after him and protect him.
What will you be aiming for next season? Ever since I arrived at Inter, first under Conte, then Inzaghi, and now Chivu, the objective has always been to win. There have been years when we’ve been better and others when we’ve been less so. This year is the same. What changes is that last year we won the league and the Coppa Italia, and now, to have a successful season, we have to win both again, plus the Super Cup, while also trying to do better in the Champions League. It will be difficult and will require a lot of energy, but those are our objectives.
If I say “Champions League,” what is the first thing that comes to mind? I’ll answer with another word: a dream. Having come close to winning it twice and not managing to get my hands on it is something I’ve never been able to get over. It’s a constant thought, but we know that, as President Marotta has also said, compared with other teams that spend hundreds of millions in the transfer market, we always have to make an extra effort. And we have done that, with our style of play, our ideas, and our desire to get there. We’ve come very close twice; hopefully there will be a third opportunity and this time it will be the one.
Last season you went through a dip in form, then from the beginning of April you scored two goals and provided three assists in five matches, the real Barella was back. What happened? That run came after the disappointment of failing to qualify for the World Cup. When you hit rock bottom - and for me it was the second time I had lost a playoff - you can only go back up. Various thoughts went through my head. Then, together with my teammates, we tried to think positively. I stopped keeping everything bottled up inside and realized that I couldn’t let what had happened affect me, however terrible it had been. I rolled up my sleeves after those months in which I had gone from losing the Champions League final to then suffering that disappointment with the World Cup.
Inter helped you? After that break, I scored against Roma. The embrace from my teammates, their happiness, and me starting to smile again… All of that made something ‘click’ in me.
Will 2030 see Italy and Barella at the World Cup? That’s what I want more than anything with the national team: to go to the World Cup at least once and play in it. My journey with the national team began with winning a Euro, and then I found myself missing out on two World Cups. An incredible beginning, followed by a descent. That leaves me feeling incomplete.
Have you become everything you wanted to be at Inter? I never thought I would become the player with the most assists in Inter’s history, but I did. I never thought I would become vice-captain either. But if you ask me whether this is what I had hoped for, I would say yes. For example, I would like to become the player with the most appearances in this shirt, but I don’t think about it. When I arrived here, I simply told myself: I’m going to play for Inter, give everything, and win everything. I could have done even better, but I’m proud of the journey so far.
So can you imagine ending your career here? Yes. Then it depends on how quickly I grow old.
