Barella reveals dark thoughts after Champions League defeat | OneFootball

Nicolò Barella reveals his darkest thoughts after losing the Champions League Final to Manchester City, but also how it fuelled him and Inter to try again. ‘Many people’s minds don’t work like that.’

The midfielder is a key figure for the Nerazzurri and Italy, who had his fair share of both success and failure in recent years.

He won the Scudetto last season, a year after suffering a slender 1-0 defeat to Pep Guardiola’s City in Istanbul, and was part of the Roberto Mancini squad that lifted the EURO 2020 trophy to the sky at Wembley Stadium in the summer of 2021.

“I felt very alone the year we won the Scudetto. When at the start everyone was criticising me, they said ‘ah that’s not the Nicolò we saw at the start,’” said Barella on podcast Senza Vendersi Mai.

“I prefer to be disliked rather than liked and selling a false image.”

Barella uses losses to motivate success

Italy’s midfielder #18 Nicolo Barella celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during the UEFA Euro 2024 Group B football match between Italy and Albania at the BVB Stadion in Dortmund on June 15, 2024. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP) (Photo by FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images)

The full podcast will be released later this week, but the snippet sent out as a preview covers how he was feeling after the Champions League Final loss of 2023.

“I lost a EURO Under-19 Championship Final, I had to abandon a World Cup because I broke my hand and my teammates finished third, then I got relegated with Cagliari and Como. I lost a Champions League Final and a Europa League Final at Inter. So I know what it means to lose,” explained Barella.

“On the other hand, I won league titles, the Coppa Italia, Supercoppa, EURO 2020. But it’s much easier to explain what it means to win. You can see it: I am exploding with joy.

“People don’t know what happens after a defeat. It ruins the whole summer, or you think ‘will I ever again play a Champions League Final, or a Europa League Final, or have a season like that?’

“Many things go through your mind. Personally, it’s not like I am happy that I lost, but it is motivation to say: I want to try again next year. Many people’s minds don’t work like that.”

Barella is 27 years old and recently signed a new contract that will hold him to Inter until June 2029.

He has 57 senior Italy caps, scoring 10 goals and providing nine assists.