Insigne: 'I almost quit football'

By Football Italia staff

Lorenzo Insigne reveals he nearly quit football because he was too short, feels the pressure of representing Napoli and doesn’t fear Manchester City.

The Partenopei are top of the Serie A table with a 100 per cent record after seven games, the first side ever to achieve this while scoring at least 25 goals.

“Any player who represents his home town will have a few problems,” Insigne told UEFA.com.

“Being the only Neapolitan in the squad, it can happen that the fans expect something more from me. I remember when I was a child and there were 70,000 fans in the Stadio San Paolo for a Serie C game. You don’t see that anywhere else.”

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the pint-sized Italy international.

“They used to say I had some talent, but was too short. At one point, I wanted to quit football, as the scouts all told me the same thing and I thought it might be futile to continue. Then I had a trial with Napoli and it went well.”

Now Insigne is inspirational and scored the goal that temporarily gave them the lead at the Bernabeu against Real Madrid last season.

“For a Neapolitan, wearing the Napoli jersey, it’s not something that happens every day. I hope that other young Neapolitans can, like me, make these childhood dreams come true.”

Napoli go head-to-head with Manchester City in the Champions League group phase in a couple of weeks.

“We mustn’t step on to the field afraid to face them. They have great champions, but if we play as a team, we can cause them problems. We must have faith, because we’ve got the quality.”

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