If you wonder what it means to be a true Roman, you might want to ask midfielder Bryan Cristante. At 31, he has spent the last eight years in the Italian capital, becoming a staple in the Giallorossi jersey.

Although he was born in Friuli and raised in Milan, Cristante has fully embraced the customs and traditions of the Eternal City. He has even adopted local linguistic quirks.

“I confess: ‘mortaci tua’ has become a catchphrase. It comes out on so many occasions, I can’t help it. Now I’m on automatic,” he explains in a wide-ranging interview with Sportweek for La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“The key moments of my career? The two Cup finals, for sure: the first, the Conference Cup, which we won against Feyenoord, but also the other, the Europa League, which we lost on penalties to Sevilla. Then, without going too far back in time, I’ll tell you about the last matchday of this season in Verona, where we secured our return to the Champions League, an event that everyone—club, players, and fans—had been missing for far too long.”

“Rome is a city you fall in love with immediately, from the very first day. You arrive and, no matter where you look, you’re struck by its beauty. The stadium, then, gives you something extra: I’m not the first to discover the energy of the Roma fans; the anthem, set to the tune of Venditti’s song, gives you goosebumps.”

“This is certainly a city that demands a lot, and it’s not always easy. Everything it gives you—warmth, enthusiasm, and passion—when things are going well turns into pressure, into an urgency that becomes stress, and it’s not easy to manage if results don’t arrive. It’s the other side of the coin.”

“You have to know how to maintain balance. In Rome, you go from exhilaration to depression too quickly; one day you’re a champion, the next you’re a loser… That’s how you ruin an entire season. This year, whether we won or lost, we were good at resetting as soon as the game was over, focusing immediately on the next one.”

“It may seem obvious, but it’s truly an honor to be the captain of a team named after a city as enormous as this one, in every sense of the word. I’m proud, along with Pellegrini and Mancini, to instill in the younger generation a sense of belonging to this club, so deeply connected to the people who support it.”

“Mourinho has given concreteness not only to me, but to the entire team. He instilled his charisma in us, instilling in us the concept of victory; the need, I would say, to win. We had two great seasons with him, winning one Cup and losing another on penalties. Coach Gasperini is strong, there’s little you can do about it. I was already lucky enough to have him at Atalanta, I knew I just had to follow him because he’s someone who’s done very well everywhere, and he proved it even in his first year in a demanding club like this.”

“Why I always play? I’m a hard worker. I like going on the pitch, working every day, and always being on point, doing what the coach asks of me. Since I was a kid, I’ve always given my all.”