Dejan on Roma, Dybala and pre-season: “Everything in life comes from working hard”
Fri 29 July 2022, 14:00|
Tottenham Hotspur
Dejan Kulusevski knows all about the task of taking on AS Roma in our final pre-season match on Saturday - and even more about their star summer signing.
Paulo Dybala joined I Giallorossi on a free transfer from Juventus last week after winning five Serie A titles and scoring 115 goals in 293 appearances from 2015-2022.
‘Deki’ played alongside the Argentina international for two seasons in Turin, 2019/20 and 2020/21 and feels the move will work a treat. Dybala was on the bench in Roma’s draw against Nice last Saturday and looks set to make his debut against us as we play for the I-Tech Cup in Haifa, Israel tomorrow evening (7.15pm UK) - available exclusively live on SPURSPLAY.
Speaking to SPURSPLAY ahead of training on Friday, Deki said: “Roma are a very good team, for sure. I know that they are always hard to play against, they have a lot of good players, all hungry to win.
“I know they play with five at the back, so it’s going to be a hard game, physical and now with their new signing, Paulo (Dybala), he will take them to new heights, I think. Paulo at Roma will be very good for both parties. Roma have a fantastic player and I think he’s going to love it there. It will be interesting to play against them and to see how they do next season.”
After a busy summer with Sweden, where he took his tally of caps to 24, Dejan re-joined our squad for pre-season in time to travel to Korea on 9 July.
“It’s been very hard, and that’s the only way,” he said. “It’s no secret, we have to work hard, we have to give our all and that’s what we’re doing now. We will all feel (the benefit) of the work we’ve done.
“For now, we keep our heads down, keep running, keep listening to the coach and then try to get results, because no-one wants to lose. For example, at Rangers last week, 1-0 down, we didn’t want to lose and changed the game. That’s what we have to do.
“I love to work hard. Everything in life comes from working hard. It’s very difficult, of course, nothing is easy, but this is what we have to do to become a champion.”
