Davide Calabria left Milan in January 2025, as captain, and joined Bologna for six months. By a twist of fate, he ended up facing the Rossoneri in the Coppa Italia final. In the interview given to Sky Calcio Unplugged, the former Rossonero spoke about those days:
"Italiano didn’t want to let me play against Milan. The first time we faced them, he called me into his room and said: ‘Do you think you’re going to play? I’m doing you a favour…’ He thought he was doing me a favour, but as a professional I didn’t agree. Maybe I took it a bit too personally as well because I didn’t react well. I wanted to play and show Milan that they had made a mistake. He, instead, wanted to protect me from the criticism," as relayed via Milan News.
Calabria continued:
“I wanted to play against Rafa, and I joked with Theo by saying: ‘I’m going to tear you apart.’ In the Coppa Italia final it was a bit of love and hate. I understood that I wouldn’t start, but I had been told I would play later on. I wanted to win the Coppa Italia. We felt we could win it and, in fact, before the semi-final against Inter, we prepared a bottle with ‘Champions of Italy’ written on it in the dressing room. I had put up images of the Coppa Italia a bit everywhere. When you’re there, you want to win. In my opinion, it was a beautiful thing for the journey the team and the club had gone through. Inside me, though, there was still a bit of bitterness that made me think that if I had been on the other side, maybe we would have won it over there. I thought first about consoling my former teammates before celebrating. Still, I knew that year it was right for Bologna to win.”
