As much as he would have loved to have contributed to the desperate attempts to nab a goal in what would have been his last appearance in an Italian jersey, Daniele De Rossi did not want to come on against Sweden on Monday evening.
With time ticking away and Italy trailing by the goal scored by Sweden in Stockholm last Friday, Italy manager Gian Piero Ventura approached De Rossi and asked him to start warming up.
De Rossi, being a defensive midfielder, knew that he was not what was required because the hosts did not need the centre of the park shored up.
They needed goals.
A furious De Rossi remonstrated with Ventura and ordered him to put on extra firepower in the form of Napoli forward Lorenzo Insigne, who would have posed more of a goalscoring threat, but Ventura ignored the request.
#DeRossi: “Che cazzo entro io? Non dovemo pareggià, dovemo vince!”, indicando Insigne. pic.twitter.com/Vr2uTy9wnF
— Valerio Curcio (@ValerioCurcio) November 13, 2017
“Why the hell should I go on? We don’t need to draw here. We need to win!” De Rossi is understood to have told Ventura, before pointing at Insigne.
After the second leg, which ended 0-0 and meant that Italy now miss out on a place at the World Cup for the first time since 1958, De Rossi apologised if he crossed the line in undermining Ventura’s authority but, in reality, supporters loved the passion that he showed on the bench in his last act as an Italy international.
“We have this tendency to warm up three at a time, then after five minutes we change and another three go,” he told Rai Sport, as translated by Goal.
“I just said we were near the end and had to win, so send the strikers to warm up. I pointed to Insigne too.
“It wasn’t up to me whether it was a tactical issue. I’m sorry if I offended anyone. At the time I just thought perhaps it was better that Insigne come on instead.”
God damn I love De Rossi for this. Might not be a elite player, but he’s such an elite man. Grande uomo. https://t.co/CysoaeMUIC
— Maxi (@MaaxiAngelo) November 13, 2017
I absolutely love this! Great passion from De Rossi here! How on earth can you leave Insigne on the bench though FFS https://t.co/L9aB2F3GgF
— Haseeb Ahmed (@haseeb1986) November 13, 2017
I love De Rossi. Takes no shit. One club man and has the teams best interest at heart. The Azzurri will be missed in Russia. https://t.co/eOhLGBTrrm
— Club de Football (@footballclubde) November 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/KamalRabi3/status/930225312226512896
Love De Rossi for shouting and fighting against what he thought wasn't right for the team until the very end…
— CarlaMangado (@CarlaMangado) November 14, 2017
https://twitter.com/DevTheBeard/status/930293521147355136
https://twitter.com/Sijistical/status/930320141048537088
https://twitter.com/ginger_culchie/status/930206126251134976
Love De Rossi. Proper winner. Unreal mentality. Up there with Ramos https://t.co/RDwaogmbMk
— Anti 5 man defences (@Chilled_DJ) November 13, 2017
Love De Rossi and his passion. One of my favourite players telling an inept coach what's right in the situation there in. Crazy. https://t.co/YVPBZ00D0L
— Joey J PT (@IamJexy) November 13, 2017
