{"id":2896,"date":"2026-08-20T09:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T09:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=2896"},"modified":"2026-08-20T09:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T09:45:14","slug":"arsenal-defender-riccardo-calafiori-reveals-unlikely-footballing-idol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=2896","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal defender Riccardo Calafiori reveals unlikely footballing idol"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Arsenal\u2019s Riccardo Calafiori has revealed an unexpected footballing idol \u2013 and it\u2019s not who many would have guessed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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In a recent exclusive interview with VERSUS<\/em><\/a>, the Italy international spoke candidly about everything from his role as an ambassador for adidas\u2019 underwear line, to who he thinks has the best hair at Arsenal (Noni Madueke, for the record). <\/p>\n

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But it was his footballing idol that really caught attention.<\/p>\n

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While most would assume he looked up to legendary Italian defenders like Paolo Maldini or Alessandro Nesta, Calafiori revealed his inspiration came from a more surprising source: Aleksandar Kolarov, the former Manchester City and AS Roma full-back.<\/p>\n

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“When I was younger at Roma, I was lucky to train with the first team,\u201d Calafiori explained. \u201cI got to learn directly from Aleksandar Kolarov, who played my position. He was someone I could watch every day \u2013 his technique, his mentality \u2013 and he gave me advice and small details I still keep with me today.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Although Kolarov was his main influence, Calafiori did mention the classic icons of Italian defending. \u201cOf course, defenders like Maldini, Nesta, Chiellini\u2026 those players are icons for me,” he added.<\/p>\n

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Calafiori says Aleksandar Kolarov his is idol. | Paolo Bruno\/GettyImages<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

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Elsewhere in the interview, the 23-year-old spoke about life at Arsenal since his \u00a342m summer move from Bologna last summer.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s special,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone\u2019s a good guy, we\u2019re friends, and I feel really comfortable here. Last season wasn\u2019t easy, but I came back this summer with a fire inside me. I couldn\u2019t wait to start again. Playing in the Premier League is the dream for so many players, so now I just want to enjoy it and show what I can do consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kolarov was a pillar of consistency at Manchester City, helping the club win two Premier League titles. Now, Calafiori will undoubtedly be hoping to replicate his idol\u2019s success at Arsenal.<\/p>\n

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READ THE LATEST FASHION, CULTURE AND LIFESTYLE CONTENT FROM 90MIN<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Arsenal\u2019s Riccardo Calafiori has revealed an unexpected footballing idol \u2013 and it\u2019s not who many would have guessed. In a recent exclusive interview with VERSUS, the Italy international spoke candidly about everything from his role as an ambassador for adidas\u2019 underwear line, to who he thinks has the best hair at Arsenal (Noni Madueke, for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[187,4724,339,4725,4726,1426,4723],"class_list":["post-2896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-arsenal","tag-calafiori","tag-defender","tag-footballing","tag-idol","tag-reveals","tag-riccardo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}