In the pantheon of Italian defending, the bloodline usually runs pure. A young Roman defender rising through the ranks is supposed to light a candle at the altar of Paolo Maldini, study the surgical precision of Alessandro Nesta, or emulate the ruthless cynicism of Giorgio Chiellini. It is an unwritten law of Calcio: you worship the masters who built the Colosseum you now stand in.
Yet, Riccardo Calafiori, Arsenalās distinctive summer acquisition, operates on a different frequency. With his flowing hair bound by a headband and a gait that eats up the turf, he looks every bit the romantic Roman hero. But his soul? His soul was forged in a colder fire. When asked to name his idol, the man who shaped his footballing philosophy, Calafiori did not look to the elegant Italians of the past. Instead, he pointed to a ghost of the Premier Leagueās brutal recent history.
He chose Aleksandar Kolarov. The Serbian tank. The man with a left foot capable of breaking the sound barrier. This revelation is not merely a piece of trivia; it is a skeleton key that unlocks the psyche of a player who clawed his way back from the brink of career extinction to stand under the lights of the Emirates.
The Boy Who Broke
To understand why Calafiori looks up to a brute force like Kolarov, we must revisit the darkest afternoon of his life. In October 2018, during a UEFA Youth League match against Viktoria Plzen, a horror tackle shattered Calafioriās knee. It wasn't a standard tear. All ligaments were ruptured; the meniscus was destroyed. The surgeon who operated on him later compared the damage to injuries typically seen in high-speed motorcycle accidents.
He was 16 years old. Doctors told him his career might be over before it began.
In those long, silent months of rehabilitation, where the mind wanders to dark places, elegant defending loses its appeal. When you are fighting just to walk again, you don't dream of Maldiniās grace. You dream of power. You dream of resilience. You dream of being unbreakable.
This is where the Kolarov influence takes root. While Calafiori was rehabilitating at Roma, Kolarov was patrolling the left flank of the Stadio Olimpico for the senior team. The Serbian was not a defender who retreated; he was an aggressor. He played with a perpetual scowl, treating the football like a personal enemy he intended to punish. For a broken boy watching from the sidelines, Kolarov represented the ultimate armor. He was a player who imposed his will upon the game physically, a necessary evolution for a young man whose body had betrayed him.
The Analysis: A Shared Arrogance
The comparison goes beyond mere admiration; it manifests in Calafioriās tactical DNA. Watch him play for Arsenal. He rejects the traditional constraints of the left-back or centre-back position. Just as Kolarov did under Roberto Mancini and later Pep Guardiola, Calafiori views his defensive starting position as a suggestion, not a rule.
Kolarov was famous for the "sledgehammer"āa left-footed strike that possessed zero backlift and terrifying velocity. While Calafiori has yet to replicate Kolarov's prolific goal-scoring record, the mechanics of his movement mirror the Serbian. Note the upright posture when he carries the ball into midfield. Observe the dismissal of opposition pressure. It is a specific type of arroganceāa belief that "I am too big, too strong, and too technical for you to take this ball from me."
| Trait | Aleksandar Kolarov | Riccardo Calafiori |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Weapon | Long-range shooting | Ball-carrying drives |
| Temperament | Stoic Aggression | Emotional Intensity |
| Role Evolution | LB to LCB | CB to Inverted LB |
Mikel Arteta did not sign Calafiori simply to head clear crosses. He signed him to disrupt blocks. This is the modern interpretation of the Kolarov role. Where the Serbian would overlap and cross, Calafiori inverts and drives. He seeks to break the lines not with a pass, but with his physical presence, dragging chaos into the orderly structure of the opponent's midfield.
From Tragedy to the Premier League
There is a poetic symmetry in Calafiori arriving in the Premier League, the very league where his idol cemented his legacy. England is unforgiving. It demands a level of physicality that breaks the fragile. Calafiori, the boy with the reconstructed knee, ran toward this challenge rather than away from it.
His journey took him from the despair of that hospital bed in Rome to the tactical rigour of Bologna under Thiago Motta, and finally to Arsenal. Each step was a brick in the wall of his redemption. By choosing Kolarov as his North Star, Calafiori signaled that he wasn't interested in being a passenger. Kolarov was a protagonistāa defender who demanded the ball, who took the free kicks, who grabbed games by the throat.
When Calafiori scored against Manchester City earlier this seasonāa thunderbolt that stunned the Etihadāthe transformation felt complete. It was a goal Kolarov himself would have nodded at in grim approval. It wasn't a delicate curl; it was a violent strike, hit with the frustration of a man who remembers what it feels like to be told he would never run again.
The revelation of his idol clears the mist su