Matteo Tomei, former goalkeeper for Ross County, told us about the memories, the emotions and the experiences that Scotland left in his mind and in his heart
Scotland made me grow, I was 21 years old and they gave me a lot of experience. They have certainly been two difficult years, but I bring this experience as a valuable personal “baggage”, a very useful extra weapon that I use on many occasions to help young people adapting to a new reality or to withstand the pressure of difficult environments. At the risk of being repetitive, I realise how difficult it was: we’re talking about a profoundly different context, a different football culture that had to be assimilated. I learned a lot about the wonderful Scottish culture, I also tried to assimilate the language and local customs. Certainly the advice I would give to young people is to try and get an experience abroad, I think it makes you grow both as a man or a woman and as a professional. Would I do such an experience again? My heart says yes, my body says that I’m probably too old to try again (laughs).
