Italy international Riccardo Calafiori says the day Arsenal won the title was the ‘best’ of his life, but reveals some teammates weren’t in the mood for the open-top bus parade the day after the Champions League Final defeat.
Italy international Calafiori looked back on some of the best moments of his career in an interview with Arsenal’s official website.
The 24-year-old has just started his third season at Arsenal and, last week, he scored his first international goal for Italy and his first home goal with the Gunners.
A 2025-26 Premier League title winner, Calafiori spoke about other meaningful achievements in his career during his latest interview.
“I won some trophies, even before I played for Roma, which was my first professional team. There’s one I always remember, which is not that important, but for me it was,” he said.
“When I was 13 or 14 I was already playing for Roma, but I also played for my school. We were in a big tournament where you play against other schools in Rome and we got to the final, and then won this prestigious tournament.
“I’m still really grateful for this because I’ve got great memories of it. My team-mates, were also my classmates, we had a mixed team with one girl in our side as well, and I don’t think we were expected to win it. But we did really well. It was difficult but we came together as a really good team and we won it.”
Becoming a Premier League champion with Arsenal, however, remains the biggest achievement in his career so far: “It’s hard to explain, but it was incredibly satisfying and also a great relief for the entire club and the Arsenal family. All the players were together that night, at the training ground, watching Manchester City against Bournemouth,” the Italian admitted.
“And we were all together celebrating. It was just amazing. It’s the best day of my life, for sure, because it was also my birthday. It was crazy.”
Arsenal also reached the Champions League Final last season, but lost it on penalties to Ligue 1 giants PSG. The day after the Final, the Gunners joined their fans in North London for an open-top bus parade, even if not everyone on the team was in the right mood at first.
“Even the parade. It would have been a little complicated, because it was the morning after losing the Champions League final, and some of us were talking on the plane back from Hungary, saying we really didn’t want to do it,” Calafiori said.
“But then when we saw how many people were there, we freaked out! In the end, it was the right thing to do, because it was still an incredible season for us. You can’t let that Champions League final condition you—you have to see the bigger picture, and it was amazing.”
Calafiori was included in Football Italia’s Italian TOTW for last week’s league rounds across Europe; you can check our ideal XI below: