The yellow-red defender added, “It’s a special week, you can feel it immediately from the workouts, it’s in your thoughts from the moment you wake up until you go to bed.”

After a challenging 2024 and a derby to kick off 2025 on the right foot, Gianluca Mancini shared his emotions in an exclusive interview with Il Tempo, which will be published in full tomorrow. Without mincing words, the yellow and red defender revisited the most significant moments of a challenging year, marked by the dismissals of José Mourinho, Daniele De Rossi, and Ivan Juric, leading to the arrival of Claudio Ranieri at the helm of Roma. Here are his words:

“I’ve been in Roma for many years now. It’s a peculiar game.” There isn’t a different approach to every derby, but it’s indeed a special week, it’s immediately felt during the trainings, it’s on your mind from the moment you wake up until you go to bed. During the day, when you’re doing something, your thought process is ‘I must stay focused, there’s the derby’. It immerses you in a unique situation and the build-up to the game fuels your energy and desire to perform well. If there are jeers following my celebration from last year, they will be expected. When you’re on the pitch, you don’t think about it. Even in previous derbies, there has been a fair amount of aggression directed at me; this sentiment has always been there, but I take it in stride. “Indeed, the boos give me that extra boost to stay focused,” he exclaimed passionately.