Svilar eager to learn and improve in new surroundings

Mile Svilar was officially presented to the media on Saturday afternoon at Trigoria.

The goalkeeper, 22, signed a five-year contract with the club on Friday - becoming the second arrival of the summer after fellow Serbian Nemanja Matic completed his move in July.

After a few welcoming words from General Manager, Tiago Pinto, who described Svilar as "a symbol of what our project is, to improve the squad now while also having an eye on the future", Svilar took questions from the assembled journalists.

Here's what he had to say...

Welcome, Mile. The director said you are a symbol of the project. I want to know what your motivation is for coming here, where you will be competing with a top goalkeeper like Rui Patricio for playing time. Do you think you can compete to be the starter here?

“The reason I chose Roma is because Roma is a huge club. I agreed with and liked the project that they presented to me.

“As for the second part of your question, I will work hard and learn day by day. I will try to keep getting better and [after that] the future will tell.”

You’ve faced Mourinho as an opponent early in your career. What impact did the praise he had for you in that first meeting have? And did you ever imagine Jose Mourinho would eventually be your coach?

“I was obviously impressed by those words from such an incredible manager, one of the greatest ever. Of course those words meant something to me, and I appreciated them very much.

“Did I ever imagine? To be honest, in my wildest dreams I couldn’t have imagined I would end up working with him – but sometimes things happen like that and now I am at a great club with a great manager, great fans, great city and a great language. I am looking forward to it.”

When you arrived at Benfica you said that Nemanja Matic spoke to you to convince you to make that move. Did this happen again this summer? And, given your background in so many countries, how many languages do you speak and have you?

“So first of all, for sure I have known Matic for 10 years or so. He spoke very highlyh about Benfica at that time, obviously it is a big club and I had a great time there. Actually this time it was Tiago Pinto who spoke very highly about Roma – so it was the same talk but it was from a different person!

"I was born in Beglium, grew up in Belgium and have friends in Belgium – but I feel Serbian and I decided to represent Serbia at international level. I I speak five languages. I can understand Italian a little bit but I don’t speak it yet at this time.”

How are you with the ball at your feet – do you like to play short passes to your defender or hit the ball long to the goalkeeper? And are your worried or motivated by the fact Roma hardly used the back-up goalkeeper last season?

“I like to play short as well as long, it depends on the game and what the game tells you to do.

“As for your other question, am I preoccupied, the answer is no; as I told you before I am here to work hard and if I get chances I will do everything to take them and then day-by-day learn and improve.”

Is leaving Benfica a chance for you to rediscover the confidence that had you regarded as an extremely talented young player a few years ago? Do you see this as a chance to revive your career?

“Well, it is true that I started on a high [in my career] and then in the meantime some things happened and I would not say I dropped, but I had the chance to play for Benfica B at a good level in the second division and I am happy that I took that chance.

“I wouldn’t look at it as a chance to revive my career. I am 22 years old at a huge club like this, with the perfect people around me, so I would rather call it an opportunity to work and to improve and to improve my talent and that is the most important thing. To learn and to improve.”

What do you think the fans are going to be like here in Italy – different from in Portugal?

“I wouldn’t say different, because Benfica has great fans too. But I am really excited to experience the fans at the stadium.

“I have seen some things on Instagram over the past few months where it looked like it is something absolutely amazing – so I am really looking forward to experiencing that in real life.”

Roma started building their brand internationally over the last few years. Did that aspect help you make your decision to come here – and did Tiago Pinto tell you anything about the plans for the future for the club?

“When I was a kid I had a Roma shirt, so I wouldn’t say it became a more international club – but actually it has always been a huge international club.

“As for Tiago Pinto, as I told you before we spoke about the club and about how huge it is and how big the expectations are.”

Your father, Ratko, was a goalkeeper too – what did he teach you?

“From the beginning, he taught me almost everything. Until I was 12 my dad was always behind the goal telling me what to do, giving me positive and negative feedback after games until I was maybe 15 or 16 years old.

“By then I had great goalkeeper coaches who, I would say, took some of the things that my dad taught me and worked on them and helped me with my vision of things. So I would say they helped me a lot to improve my vision. But my dad definitely taught me a lot.”

Looking for outside, how much did winning the UEFA Europa Conference League mean for this club do you think? And what do you make of Serie A as a league?

“It’s huge, because winning a European competition is always huge. In the last month it has been spoken about a lot.

“I have been following Serie A for many years; I love the competition and love watching the competition and I cannot wait to get started.”