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- David De Gea says he feels at home at Fiorentina after Manchester United exit and year away from football
David De Gea says he feels at home at Fiorentina after Manchester United exit and year away from football
David De Gea's journey from the intense pressure cooker of Manchester United to the sun-drenched pitches of Florence reads less like a simple transfer and more like a footballer's pilgrimage toward rediscovering his soul. After a year away from the beautiful game—a period the Spaniard himself describes as 'one of the best of my life personally'—the veteran goalkeeper has found not just a new club in Fiorentina, but a profound sense of belonging that seemed to elude him during his final, fractious years at Old Trafford.Speaking to So Foot Arena, De Gea painted a picture of an almost instantaneous connection with his new surroundings, a stark contrast to the often transactional nature of modern football. 'As soon as I arrived at Fiorentina I felt at ease,' he revealed, a statement that carries significant weight when you consider the 34-year-old spent over a decade as United's last line of defense, a role that saw him oscillate between being hailed a savior and scapegoated with jarring frequency.The club's state-of-the-art Viola Park facility was a major draw, a tangible symbol of ambition, but De Gea was quick to highlight the intangible: the familial atmosphere cultivated by staff and teammates, and the raw, unfiltered passion of the Fiorentina faithful, whose choreographed curva he admits he loves to watch during the heat of battle. It’s a far cry from the sometimes-muted applause at a rainy Theatre of Dreams, and one can’t help but draw parallels to other great custodians who found late-career renaissance in Serie A—think of Gianluigi Buffon’s enduring legacy at Parma or the commanding presence of Juventus’s Wojciech Szczęsny.De Gea’s statistical profile, once defined by his superhuman reflexes and a sometimes-questionable command of his area, is now being recalibrated in a league that prizes tactical intelligence and distribution just as highly as shot-stopping prowess. His reflections on his year-long sabbatical are particularly telling; this was not a player anxiously waiting by the phone, but one who actively embraced a life beyond the white lines.'I learned that you can live even without football,' he stated, a lesson many elite athletes never allow themselves to learn, often stumbling into a painful identity crisis upon retirement. This period of personal growth, filled with cherished family time he felt was sacrificed during his United tenure, seems to have granted him a renewed perspective and a purer love for his profession.When the call from Fiorentina finally came, the decision was, in his words, 'simple. ' Italy represented a dream, a top league with a deep-rooted cultural appreciation for the defensive arts, and Fiorentina offered the perfect project.Under manager Raffaele Palladino, La Viola are building a dynamic, possession-oriented side, and De Gea’s experience and proven quality provide a bedrock of stability. The city itself, which De Gea praised as 'small but beautiful' with 'special' food, completes the picture, offering a quality of life that can be as crucial to performance as any training regimen.The ultimate goal, as he openly admits, is to 'win a trophy,' a quest that would etch his name into the rich history of a club desperate to return to the upper echelons of Italian football. For De Gea, this isn’t merely a new contract; it’s a second act, a chance to build a legacy on his own terms, in an environment that values the man as much as the player. The narrative is compelling: the prodigious talent who weathered storms in England, took a courageous step back to breathe, and has now emerged, recalibrated and re-energized, ready to become a legend in violet.
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