MILAN – This is it: we're all here with our TVs tuned into Inter Channel (Sky Italia channel 232) to enjoy every minute and every word of Edoardo Caldara's Prima Serata, where Ricardo Alvarez is tonight's guest.
For those of you who can't watch the programme, inter.it offers you a few more snippets from the Argentine midfielder's birthday interview.
The fans goad him: "Ricardo, you have to run more... at least as much as Zanetti!" Alvarez replied: "The captain is unlike anything I've ever seen. No one can touch him, he's living history, a legend." Caldara quickly added: "So what idea did you have of Zanetti back in Argentina?" "If you don't know him," Ricardo answered, "you think he's a magnificent professional but also a serious individual. Then if get the chance to meet him, you realise he really is just as professional as you thought, but as a man he's... very funny. He knows how to make his friends smile and he always puts you in a good mood, even though he's a world-class player of the sort you rarely see nowadays..."
Ricardo expresses himself well in his Argentine-sounding Italian: "Fortunately I've met people I enjoy talking to - within the team obviously but elsewhere too - and that's helped me with my Italian." Caldara managed to extract an amusing behind-the-scenes story from him: "Apart from your team-mates, who do you talk to?" "The concierge at home, for example. He's an Interista and I always take him to the stadium. Well, to be honest he's a bit annoyed this year. He doesn't say anything about me or my team-mates but I reckon he thinks certain things..."
Ricardo also received plenty of emails with compliments from women: "I'm cute? And who wrote that, my mum?" Actually, it was Caterina, but she was by no means the only one.
After a joke and a smile, the chat ended talking about football and Inter: "It's an amazing experience for me, even though it hasn't been the best of seasons for the team. I'm proud to be here, it's an honour. There are many many players in the world who would like to wear this shirt. I consider myself very lucky."
Prima Serata returns next week with Edoardo Caldara and another guest: exclusively on Inter Channel and with previews on inter.it.
