Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta spoke about the team's newest signing, defender Riccardo Calafiori, ahead of the start of the new Premier League season.
![](/media/posts/2024/08/14/20240730_004118-scaled.jpg)
"I fell in love with him a year ago, I saw something special: an aura, charisma, involvement in the game that was not only related to his skills. So we started following him, and when we saw him play, he was 21 at the time, and he was doing things and reacting to things in a way that a 21-year-old doesn't normally do. He had a really tough past, a really tough knee injury, and the way he reacted to that was amazing. And when I met him, he was so convinced that he wanted to come only to Arsenal, he wanted to play only for us, so I'm very happy to have him," Arteta's press service quoted the Gunners as saying.