Despite having several offers on the table from both England and Spain, Switzerland’s dynamo midfielder – Xherdan Shaqiri – has revealed how Roberto Mancini was the defining reason behind his recent loan move to Inter Milan.
According to the Daily Mail, the World Cup star felt a connection between himself and the former Manchester City coach that simply wasn’t matched by the likes of Liverpool in their attempts to land the ex-Basel man.
Shaqiri – who is still officially a Bayern Munich player – has explained just why Mancini’s influence proved so pivotal in his eventual decision;
“Inter had been in contact with my agents and my brother Erdin for some time.
“Then there were two phone calls from Mancini. We had two good chats. I immediately felt like I wold be very important for him.
“At my age, what interested me most was the chance to play regularly, which hadn’t happened a lot lately. Mancini explained to me that I would see a lot of time on the pitch. He spoke about his philosophy and that of the club, and his desire to take Inter back to its glorious recent past.”
As Brendan Rodgers could potentially fail to offer the Swiss star the same extent of regular first team football – with the likes of Raheem Sterling, Philippe Coutinho and Lazar Markovic already filling the such positions in Liverpool’s squad – perhaps the Reds were seemingly on the back-foot throughout the negations involved to sign the player.
Inter meanwhile remain short of their best form, currently languishing in ninth place in the Italian league.
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