Bright future for Roma midfielder
Christian Piccolotto of the St. Catharines Club Roma Wolves. Photo by: RUTH WANLESS.
Christian Piccolotto’s time in Italy was an eye-opening experience.
The 18-year-old Hamilton resident spent six weeks in Italy last spring training with two teams and came away impressed.
“The difference is the same answer you’re always going to get, everyone is going to tell you the speed of play is quick, the players are smart and the training sessions are intense,” Piccolotto said. “They are very serious. Off the field, they have their fun, but on the field it’s always serious.”
Piccolotto was taken aback at the level of intensity the fans brought to the games.
“It’s massive over there. The first club I was with, I was able to go see a couple of their games and they have a small group of fans who are die-hard fans,” he said. “They had smoke bombs and massive flags. They’re just going nuts for a fourth-division club. The team could be down 3-0 or 4-0 and they’re still going crazy.
“The atmosphere is on a different level.”
Piccolotto trained part of the time with Viterbese Primavera last year and is headed back again this month.
“It’s brought my game to a new level. Every time I go over I feel like I come back a stronger player,” he said. “It’s always been a dream of mine to go over there and sign in Europe, especially in Italy. The goal was to sign a contact and now that the window is opening up in January, that’s the goal.”
He loved being able to dedicate himself fully to soccer.
“In a way it was great. You’re an age where if you’re able to sign and play with a team over there that’s your full-time job and you don’t have to worry about anything else. You’re just playing and doing what you love to do,” he said. “You can put all your focus and energy into that, into your passion.”
Piccolotto played for St. Catharines Club Roma Wolves assistant coach Davide Massafra with Empire United before joining the Wolves last summer.
“We used him a lot at the holding midfielder so sometimes he was playing against guys that were three or four years older than him,” said Carmine Provenzano, Roma’s Head of Operations for League1. “When the season ended for the premiere side he was young enough to go and play with our reserve team until the end of October which was a huge asset for us.”
Roma head coach Federico Turriziani was impressed by Piccolotto’s growth.
“Christian developed a lot over the course of the last season,” Turriziani said. “He played in first team matches which motivated him to work with a higher level of intensity. Overall, Christian is a smart player and has excellent game vision.”
This is the third in a series of profiles of Roma players who trained in Italy last season. Next week: Gianluca DelPriore.
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