Florenzi's admiration for Fabregas

Alessandro Florenzi has been well received by the Valencia CF dressing room since his arrival one week ago, and the Italian has already featured for his new team in games against Celta Vigo and Granada CF.

As his teammates get to know more about him, so have VCF Media, and they quizzed Florenzi on who was his football idol when his career got underway.

The answer was slightly surprising, only to a gap in age between them of just four years: Florenzi is a fan of AS Monaco player Cesc Fabregas.

The two have even coincided on the pitch on several occasions, the first of which was a friendly between Italy and Spain on March 24th, 2016. The most memorable, however, was in the European Championships that same year. Florenzi would ask Fabregas for his shirt at halftime, telling him that "you have been mi idol since I started playing,' in a match won 2-0 by Italy.

Fabregas asked why he was so admired by Florenzi, and the defender explained that he had managed to debut in the elite aged just 16, whilst he himself had needed to wait until he was 20 at AS Roma and hadn't become established in Serie A until he was 21.

The encounter led to a heartwarming touch from Fabregas when Florenzi suffered a serious injury. The Spaniard obtained his number from fitness coach Paolo Bertelli and called him to wish him well.