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| Roma’s Radia Nainggolan celebrates after scoring his second screamer against Inter. |
When Rolling Stone magazine asked him whether he considered himself a “discotheque footballer” in late 2015, he replied with an unapologetic “yes”, before adding: “I have no desire to stay home every evening like other players who just go ‘house, football pitch, house, football pitch’.”
That mindset has not always endeared him to coaches. Marc Wilmots, after leaving Nainggolan out of Belgium’s 2014 World Cup squad, eventually came to recognise the player’s talent and subsequently made sure that the player’s hotel rooms always had a balcony to smoke on.
But he still let his feelings be known when he lamented that: “It will be [Nainggolan’s] problem if he only plays to 30 years old instead of 35.”
Luciano Spalletti has taken a different tack. When footage emerged earlier this month of Nainggolan venting his hatred of Juventus, and lighting up a cigarette, outside a bar late at night, the Roma manager refused to condemn his behaviour instead turning his ire on the “fake supporters” who had filmed the scene surreptitiously on a mobile phone.
“Radja probably finds his balance by always going hard,” said Spalletti. “A person can find balance by doing a little bit of this, a little bit of the other thing, eating only a little, drinking a little, giving out few kisses.
[Nainggolan], on the other hand, eats a lot, he runs a lot, he gives out a lot of kisses and he does a lot of everything. That’s how he finds his balance. But the balance is still always there.”
Nainggolan has definitely been going hard on the pitch for Roma lately. His form to start this season was patchy, but over the last four months he has been quite possibly the most influential player in Serie A.
Repurposed by Spalletti from defensive midfielder into a rampaging No10, the Belgian has done more than any team-mate to keep the Giallorossi snapping at Juventus’s heels.