In Their Own Words: Adam Masina

Italian left-back on honouring his mum’s memory, being inspired by Del Piero, and his viral video, in his self-written interview...

I’m not a particularly superstitious guy but when I walk onto the pitch before a game I always say ‘hi’ to my mum. She died when I was very small and I was too young to remember her, but I do remember her in my heart. I like to think that by playing with her always in my mind I am honouring my mother. I am a father now myself; I have an eight-month-old daughter called Isabelle. There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with being a parent but in this moment, I am in awe of everything. One thing I have learned is that if my daughter is fine, then everything is fine. If she’s not very good, everything is not very good. I remember in one of our recent games I had a very good performance but afterwards she had a little bit of a cold and it made me sad. But it’s an unbelievable feeling; I’ve never felt anything like this. She sleeps in the same room as me and her mother and every morning she is laughing and smiling and screaming – she is like my alarm clock now! I can’t wait for this moment though. When I go to sleep I know the night will be hard, but I can’t wait for when it’s time to wake.

When I was younger I used to go on skiing holidays with my father to the Italian Alps every year and I loved it. It’s the sport of my family because every single one of my relatives skis. It’s like our tradition. The problem is, being a professional footballer, I cannot do it now sadly, and I really miss it. The last time I went skiing was probably five or six years ago, but when I finish playing football I’ll be back up in the mountains for sure. The other sporting activity I enjoy is swimming. I used to swim a lot when I was growing up and I still do it now to stay in shape over the summer. One of my favourite things about going swimming is that I can relax my mind when I am in the pool.

On the football pitch, my hero and my idol was Alessandro Del Piero. Technically he was unbelievable and he had great character, but the main thing about him was that he was a fair player and he had humility on and off the pitch. I think that represents what football can teach people. He was certainly one of the very best Italian players, if not the best ever. Personally, the connection between me and him is what his football represented, and that’s having fun but also being humble. I’ve only met him on one occasion and that was during a game. I was a ball-boy at Bologna and I said ‘hi’ to him during a game when Juventus came. I was so star stuck!

In my own position, there are a lot of different players I have looked to when learning how to be a better player. Players like Maicon, Marcelo, Filipe Luís and Aleksandar Kolarov have all taught me a lot. One of the left-backs I like to watch most at the moment is Andy Robertson at Liverpool. I look at him in particular because he is in great condition both physically and mentally, and I think he’s amazing. You can always learn so much by watching other players who play in a similar position to you.

The sportsperson I would most like to meet is Michael Jordan. He is a legend for me. I think LeBron James is a great basketballer now with all his achievements, but Jordan…wow! In Italy there’s a journalist called Federico Buffa and he did a special interview with Jordan and it was amazing. People have to see it. He had the ability to tell Jordan’s story like I was there with him, so I have been admiring him ever since. The main thing about him for me is that I love challenges and I like to think of Michael Jordan as the ‘Challenge Man’. People would put limits on what he could do and then he would go and overcome it. He was just unbelievable.

There was a video going around earlier this year – after the Tranmere game – when I went to say sorry to a lady who got hit by a shot I had taken during the warm-ups. Apparently the video has been seen something like a million times now, and I cannot believe it! I was just so sorry for her. When I took the shot I could see that she was not looking and it was going to hit her, and I felt so bad. I went to say sorry straight away and then I went over again after the game. She said I shouldn’t worry about it because it was just an accident. The problem was, I had already given my shirt to a child in the crowd and I only had my under shirt left, so I thought I’d give her that but I also invited her down to the training ground to give her a proper shirt. When things like this happen, people often don’t expect footballers to care. It’s a fight I’ve had since I started playing football, because I don’t know why people have this idea of footballers not being like other people. It’s like this in Italy as well, and maybe it’s to do with the past. I know we are athletes and some people may admire some of us, but once we walk out of the stadium people need to realise we are just like everyone else. At Watford we are very close to the fans and at Bologna it was a similar feeling. Bologna felt like family because I was from the city, but I am also very happy with the connection I have here with the fans. After I came here, my girlfriend and I noticed that if we lose but have worked hard for the fans, they say ‘it’s okay, don’t worry, try again next time’. These are the types of values that personalities like Del Piero have taught me in football.