Roma Vs Inter can still summon old arguments, but Radja Nainggolan turned this one inward. Before watching the game from Belgium, the 38-year-old said he still feels fit enough to play a match like this — and, in his view, to find a place in either team.
That is not just nostalgia speaking. Nainggolan insisted he could still work as either an attacking midfielder or a box-to-box midfielder, which says something about how he sees his game now: not as a fading memory, but as a player who still believes he can solve a problem in the right match. Roma Vs Inter, he suggested, would still suit him because both sides like to attack and because the pace of the contest would leave room for players who can read it quickly.
Why he still believes he belongs
Nainggolan’s case is built on familiarity as much as fitness. He spent four and a half years at Roma and 18 months at Inter, and he spoke about both clubs with the confidence of someone who knows their rhythms from the inside. Inter, in his view, remain the stronger side, with no rivals in Italy in terms of squad depth. But he also gave Roma credit for finding stability and identity under Gasperini, and warned that the pressure of a complicated evening could leave the door open for anything.
He even named a possible difference-maker: Dzeko. That fits the tone of the interview. Nainggolan was not trying to turn Roma Vs Inter into a personal audition. He was making a broader point about a match between two teams that attack well, but still live with the tension of what happens when the game becomes sharp and unpredictable.
Rome, Inter and the choices that changed his path
The deeper part of the interview was about why his career moved the way it did. Nainggolan said he left his heart in Rome, and that he never would have left. He also made clear that the move away from Roma was not really his choice. In his account, Monchi wanted to dismantle the squad built by Walter Sabatini and create one of his own, even while asking Nainggolan for transfer advice. He said the same logic applied to Dzeko, whom Monchi tried to sell to Chelsea.
There was also the timing. Nainggolan pointed back to the Champions League semi-final against Liverpool, saying Roma had just shown they were a great team and felt they could grow further. Instead, the project changed. That is why his comments land with more force than a simple regret. They are a reminder that football decisions are often made at the exact moment a team feels closest to becoming something bigger.
At Inter, the story was shorter and colder. Nainggolan said he has to thank the club because he wrote the most exciting chapters of his career there, but he also admitted that things did not work out after the first year. He suggested he paid the price for Spalletti’s departure, then said Conte immediately told him he was not part of his plans. He respected that because, unlike Monchi, Conte was direct.
That distinction matters. Nainggolan was not simply complaining about how things ended. He was drawing a line between different kinds of football power: the uncertainty of a director who plays both sides, and the bluntness of a coach who tells you exactly where you stand.
Still active, still relevant
Now playing in the second division for Patro Eisden, Nainggolan says he remains fit enough to step into a game like Roma Vs Inter. Whether that is literally true in the present-day tactical sense is almost beside the point. What matters is that he still sees himself as part of the conversation, and still views Rome and Inter as places where his football identity was shaped most sharply.
For Roma and Inter, the interview is a useful reminder that careers are often defined by more than transfers and lineups. They are also defined by timing, trust and what a club chooses to build around a player. Nainggolan’s career, as he tells it, was altered by decisions made at the wrong time. The interesting part is that, at 38, he still sounds convinced he could fit into the right match if given the chance.
