Parma, Lautaro Valenti and the kidnapping: “They held a gun to my knee. I was afraid I’d never play again”

When he was still in his twenties and living in Argentina, Valenti experienced moments of sheer terror when he was kidnapped by a gang of bandits, along with his girlfriend and his agent. This is how he recalls it: "My only fear was the gun pointed at my knee and the thought that I might never play football again. They wanted money; my agent was there too, so there was no problem. I wasn’t nervous. Was I afraid of dying? No, but I was afraid of not being able to play football. Did the kidnapping give me more strength? No, I never thought about it; the past is the past.”

"What makes Parma special is the love shown by everyone here and by all the people who come through these parts. I’ve been here for many years now and you really feel the warmth of so many people. Why Parma? I wanted to play in Europe; Parma were the first club to want me and I gave them my word. It was a bit tough at first because of all the injuries – I’d never had any in Argentina, they all started here. It was a bit tough at first, but if you’ve got a strong mind, you pull yourself together."

"Did I expect Chivu to manage a top club? Yes, I already knew he could be a great manager. Cuesta comes from a very big club in England, so I think he’s brought us a lot of ambition and a lot of his own strength; it’s great working with him."

“Pellegrino knows we’re all behind him, so he does what he has to do to help the team. Yes, he might be missing a couple of goals, but there are others there to help him score them. But if he stays strong, he’ll do whatever he wants. Bernabè? He’s too good. Football-wise, he’s too good. In my opinion, dribbling is like speaking for him – it’s too easy. So if he stays on his own path, he’ll achieve great things.”

On Leoni, his former teammate now at Liverpool, he added: “We speak often; I hear from him quite a bit about how things are going in general, how his recovery is going. I told him he needs to look ahead and not think about his leg; he needs to focus on recovering as soon as possible. Then, when he gets back on the pitch, he mustn’t think about his knee, because if he thinks about his knee, it’s a bit difficult to manage on the pitch. He just has to think about what’s ahead of him."