Frattesi on Lazio return: ‘I needed to feel at the centre of a project’

Davide Frattesi arrives for his Lazio medical, completing the move from Inter (@officialsslazio)

Davide Frattesi has completed a move to Lazio that he describes as a return home, joining the club where he spent his boyhood.

According to Gianluca Di Marzio, the deal was finalised after a brief hold-up over bureaucratic issues, with Lazio and Inter agreeing a paid loan worth €5m, an option to buy set at €10m plus bonuses, and a 50% sell-on clause in the Nerazzurri’s favour.

Speaking to Lazio’s official channels after the announcement, the midfielder reflected on a draining but rewarding few days. “I experienced it well. When days like this happen, you go back and forth, but it was a wait lived with desire,” Frattesi said. “It was tiring, but beautiful: it was worth it.”

Frattesi relishes emotional Lazio homecoming

For a player who came through Lazio’s academy as a child before crossing the Tiber to Roma, the move carried genuine emotion.

“When I arrived, I recognised the streets I used to walk as a child, when I trained at Giustiniana,” he said. “I return with a different responsibility and greater maturity. I think the time has come to take on important responsibilities, and I do so very willingly.”

Central to his decision was the desire to be a protagonist again after a peripheral role at Inter.

“Even at Inter I’d built a good relationship with the fans, despite playing little, there were ups and downs, but we always got along,” he said. “This involvement from the Lazio fans has pleased me a lot. I needed to feel at the centre of a project again: this welcome charges me up.”

Frattesi also revealed the move had nearly happened before. “We’d been fairly close in January, then for various reasons we couldn’t close it,” he said. “This time they informed me a couple of days ago, there was only time to decide and sort out the papers. I didn’t have great doubts.”