welcome Melo!!!!

Felipe Melo: «I will work hard to win the championship and the Champions League»

It was a rather quick and unexpected signing and yet it seems to be , together with that of Diego, the greatest signing in the Italian transfer market. Felipe Melo has joined Juventus the team which he admired as a child, the one captained by Roberto Baggio.

The fans expect Juventus to challenge Inter seriously for the championship and Melo believes that this is possible: «I am not scared of Inter. It is a big club but so is Juve and if we all work together I am sure we can reach great goals.» He defines his move to Juventus as a leap in quality: «I think the fact that the club did a rather big financial effort to sign me, this makes me feel good. I am happy to have reached this level and now I will work hard to win the championship and the Champions League».

An ongoing debate is whether football should be spectacular or aimed at results and who better then a Brazilian can answer such a question? «I think it is more important to win rather then to be specatacular. I played in great teams which were spectacular but did not win anything and in others were we weren’t specatcular but we won because we were united. We must be united like a family and work as a team so as to obtain our objectives».

Journalists have compared Felipe Melo to Emerson and Dunga: «I have just joined a great team and I just want to think of working hard. In two years or three years time, after having won some important titles, then perhaps I will be in a position to be compared to other greats like Emerson and Dunga but not at the moment. The Brazilian national team?I am now at Juventus. I will work hard for Juventus because this club must always be at the top. I will work hard and then if I do well the Brazilian national team call-up will come as it has in the past but I am a Juve player and I will work hard to be worthy. We must all work hard. With or without Diego or Melo, Juve are strong and so we must work hard and be united to be as strong as possible. I can’t wait to be in the dressing rooms, speak with the other players and get to know them. I once played against Sissoko in Spain and now I am really curious to speak to him and play by his side».

Told that the fact that last year he was shown quite a numbr of yellow and red cards, the audacious Brazilian answered: «Last year I was shown quite a few cards. It was my first year in Italy and this could have been the reason since in 4 years in Spain I only got shown one red card. Now I know the methods of the referees here in Italy and even though as a midfielder I am bound to be shown cards I will definitely be more careful and shown less cards».

Felipe Melo is destined to become a Juve fan idol and this can easily be deduced from his conclusion to the press conference: « I came here because Juventus is a club that can win anything. All we have to do is work hard. If we work hard and do so well the scudetto will be a bit closer».

*juventus.com