ITALY/ AS ROMA, Baldini: "Castan can play in the difficult centre-back role"

© foto di Marco Iorio/Image Sport

As Roma general manager Franco Baldini has spoken at the beginning of the press conference of Castan and Tachtsidis introduction.

"These two lads we're presenting to the Italian media today, Leandro Castan and Panagiotis Tachtsidis, joined up with us just before our US tour and today is the first opportunity for us to show them to you. I'll introduce them in age order, starting with the oldest. Castan won a Brazilian league championship and then, just a few weeks ago, the Copa Libertadores – a competition in which he played exceptionally well and attracted the attention of clubs from all over the world. The negotiations to bring him here were a bit drawn out, partly because Corinthians wanted him to sign a contract extension with them, but things worked out well for us in the end. I'm pleased that after Aldair, we now have another Brazilian who can play in the difficult centre-back role for Roma".

"Moving on to Tachtsidis, I think you probably know him yourselves having seen him last year in Serie B with Verona, where he made 37 appearances and scored two fine goals – though neither was patch on his magical strike in Chicago against Lubin. Panagiotis has a lot of strengths and these qualities are exactly what our coach was looking for. Zeman rates him very highly. It will be his first season in Serie A so he'll need a bit of time to adjust to top-flight football. Who does he remind me of? Instinctively I'd say Redondo, especially for the way he uses his left foot, but objectively speaking it's early days to be making such comparisons. As I said, the boy has a lot of quality and we hope he can fulfil the great potential he has shown. We just need to give him a bit of time to make the step up into Serie A."