“A great experience”: Former Man United midfielder Davide Petrucci pinpoints how the club prepared him

Former Manchester United midfielder Davide Petrucci has spoken about his time at the club.

Career

The Roma native joined United’s academy in 2008 and left the club in 2014.

The Italian would later move to Peterborough United before joining CFR Cluj in Romania.

He would later represent Çaykur Rizespor in Turkey before returning to Italy to play in Serie B for Ascoli and Cosenza.

Petrucci then dropped down to Serie C to represent Brindisi before joining Messina.

Interview

The club’s official website carried out an interview with the Italian on his time at Carrington.

Speaking on his return to Manchester for the interview, he explained, “it’s an amazing feeling and I’m really, really happy to be here. For me, it was the biggest dream to be at United because I was already coming from Roma, which is a good youth system in football but I think United was a step up.”

Describing United’s appeal at the time, he explained, “the club was bigger and the best in the world. So, for me, it was an amazing experience and I am really proud to have been part of that team. It was great, we were all young but you could feel they were all really big players. We were starting out and everybody was trying to make his own career in football.”

Petrucci also hinted that the youth team of that era was very close and that its members still stay in touch. He explained, “whenever I have the chance of the possibility to speak with them or meet them again, it’s amazing. Football can really give you a lot of things outside of the pitch.”

Sadly, injury would put paid to Petrucci’s chances of making it at the club, and he commented, “unfortunately, at that time, I was often injured. Things went like this but, in any case, I’m very happy with what I did. To come here was honestly amazing so, even if I didn’t quite make it through, the rest was a great experience for me, with the Under-21s and Under-18s. We did very well, won a lot of trophies and made a lot of memories. So I’m very proud of that.”

He praised the football education he received in England and believes this stood him in good stead for the rest of his career as he asserted, “they taught us to be professional at United. They were really good coaches who taught us a lot of things. Work hard all the time so, even if sometimes you don’t make it through to the first team at United, you can still have your own career away from there, you know.”

Since giving up playing, Petrucci is now in a role looking after and guiding young players, and he feels his footballing career has prepared him for this.

The former midfielder explained, “playing in six different countries, it helps you deal with every type of player, every type of religion or mentality, all of these type of things. So, when you talk to a player, in my opinion, this is important because you know how to deal with them. You understand the player better and, when you understand the person and the player better, the results after might come easier. It’s the type of career that taught me a lot and I think it’s important for me to use the experience I have to help with the younger players.”

Featured image by Michael Regan via Getty Images