Rudiger: 'Insigne strongest opponent'

By Football Italia staff

Roma defender Antonio Rudiger admits that Napoli forward Lorenzo Insigne is 'my strongest opponent'.

The Germany international blames this on Insigne's low centre of gravity and one-touch football.

"At home we speak our language, that is, an English with a strong local accent," Rudiger told UltimoUomo.

"In interviews I prefer not to risk speaking Italian so that I’m not misunderstood. I was born in Neukölln, for me it was a piece of paradise, which is why I did not grow up with racism or anything like that.

I had Arab friends along with others from all cultures and countries of the world. I've never had any problems, we were together as a family. I liked living there. Of course, now I would not want my children to grow up like I did. There are people who have taken other paths.

"I do not mean that if I had not become a footballer I would have become a criminal, I can’t know that, but football gave me a good direction."

Rudiger took the route from the youth team of Borussia Dortmund to Stuttgart, but does not have any regrets over his choice.

"If you look at the statistics, since Mario Götze went up into the first team from the youth sector, there were only two other players who made the same jump. If I look at my career with Stuttgart, I played more than 80 games with the first team. So I think I made the right choice.

"My strongest opponent? [Lorenzo] Insigne is a very intelligent player. He knows my physicality and knows that he has no hope if you stretch the ball. So he almost always plays with one touch against me: I could not win it back. He touched the ball only once and then it went away from me.

"The fact is that he has a low centre of gravity and therefore is more stable than me. I am very athletic and fast, but if he moves sideways, I'm dead.

"[Lionel] Messi? Crazy. Another level. I prefer playing against players like Mario Mandzukic, who is my height."

The defender missed the early part of the season with a cruciate ligament rupture sustained last June.

"People forget ... I did not play for four months and then I started to play directly as a starter: so far I have played more than 35 games, it is normal to have dips.

"But I honestly think I’ve found consistency this season. Last season, I was more uneven: one or two good games, then one bad. But this season I think I was consistent, sometimes I look back and say I was crazy, that is not normal to come back so quickly and to do so well.

"When I came back on the pitch they told me that it was as if I'd never been injured."

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