PINZOLO - "Inter are the top club I wanted," replied Samir Handanovic when asked why he joined the Nerazzurri, during his unveiling to the press today.
"I've always worked hard to get to a top club like Inter, a top club where you can win things," Samir added before answering the inevitable question about Julio Cesar: "I respect and admire Julio Cesar a lot. I think he's a great keeper but this has got nothing to do with me. Besides, that's the way football goes. When he joined Inter, Toldo was here, and before Toldo there were other keepers, Fontana, Peruzzi, Pagliuca and so on. All I can say is that I'll be putting everything I have into it, all my professionalism. I'm starting from scratch here; I'm not looking at who was here before me or what they did."
Handanovic felt it was the right time to move on from Udinese and revealed the agreement he had with the side from Friuli: "Maybe I could have left Udine earlier but we were getting good results and I was happy to stay there. I didn't feel I needed anything else. I'm 28 now and I'm still at the right age for a change. I have changed and I'm happy. I didn't need to give it much thought. I had an agreement with the club that when the right offer came in I could leave. And it did."
During the press conference Samir recalled the first time he played at the San Siro, against Inter in 2005/05. "I was playing for Treviso and we lost 3-0. I made a few saves... but the teams were different back then."Now he can't wait to go back to San Siro playing for the home team: "When I went there as the opposition, I realised how beautiful the stadium is. I'm sure it will be even more exciting going there as a Nerazzurri player. I wonder how I'll feel..."
One thing he does know is that he's already starting to feel at ease at Inter. He's getting to know his new team-mates and it won't be a problem for him to adjust from the three-man defence used at Udinese to Inter's flat back four: "We play with four at the back for Slovenia. The main thing is getting to know your team-mates, knowing how they move, how they play; that's more important than whether you play with three or four defenders in front of you. Which goalkeepers did I look up to? I've always admired Schmeichel and Buffon too. For ten years he was phenomenal, unlike anyone else."Finally, Samir spared a few words of praise for the Trentino region: "It's great here, the temperature is wonderful, and it rains every now and then. Generally speaking there's everything you need to be able to concentrate on your football and train in the best way possible."
