{"id":327732,"date":"2025-12-05T20:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T20:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/327732\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T20:30:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T20:30:11","slug":"destiny-udogie-interview-it-was-not-something-i-would-wish-on-anyone-it-was-a-shock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/327732\/","title":{"rendered":"Destiny Udogie interview: \u2018It was not something I would wish on anyone. It was a shock\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Destiny Udogie has no interest in dwelling on the past.<\/p>\n

For Udogie, even Tottenham Hotspur\u2019s historic Europa League triumph in Bilbao in May, the mention of which still makes him grin with pleasure, has to be reluctantly consigned to history now that the 23-year-old has developed a taste for winning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a dream come true, honestly, because it was my first trophy and to win for Tottenham is a big achievement for everyone,\u201d Udogie tells The Athletic, speaking at the launch event for Puma\u2019s new store on London\u2019s Oxford Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m still happy right now because it\u2019s something that stays forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the past is gone, I\u2019m just looking to go forward, I\u2019m just looking for the next challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c(When you win) you become more confident in yourself. It makes you feel like, \u2018OK, I can do this again\u2019. That\u2019s what happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Destiny Udogie celebrates with the Europa League trophy in Bilbao (James Gill\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Udogie\u2019s determination to look ahead is a driving force in his career, and has been important in another sense during an unsettling period for the defender and his young family.<\/p>\n

On November 3, The Athletic reported that a Premier League player had allegedly been threatened with a firearm by a football agent in London. The city\u2019s Metropolitan Police confirmed that a man, 31, had been arrested, and Udogie was later named as the footballer by an Italian media outlet.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the incident publicly for the first time, Udogie says he is deeply grateful for the support of his club, who said in a statement on November 4 that they were assisting the Italy international and his family, but he wants to put the incident behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club showed me good support and was next to me every day,\u201d Udogie says. \u201cI\u2019m really grateful to them for what they have done and for keeping me and my family safe. It\u2019s really good for me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it was important (to feel that support). Because it\u2019s a new city for me. It\u2019s my third year (at Spurs), but London is a big city.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo to be here with my family and my daughter, it\u2019s good to have the club around me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he was shaken by the incident, Udogie says: \u201cYeah, of course. It was not something I\u2019d wish on anyone. It was a shock. But it\u2019s OK, now we look forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pillars of Udogie\u2019s support system at Spurs are two fellow Italians, \u201cbig brother\u201d Guglielmo Vicario and \u201cbig father\u201d Fabio Paratici, the club\u2019s co-sporting director.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Udogie and Guglielmo Vicario on Italian national team duty in Paris last year (Claudio Villa\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Paratici, who officially returned to Spurs in October, identified Udogie\u2019s potential during his first spell at the club, when the defender was still a raw teenager coming through for Serie A side Udinese.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Paratici) told me it\u2019s the best league, he said it\u2019s never going to be easy, but he prepared me for it. And I think it\u2019s going well,\u201d Udogie says. \u201cHe\u2019s like a big father because we speak every day. When he signed me, I stayed at Udinese (on loan) for one year, so we didn\u2019t speak that much, but as soon as I came to the club, we became close and he\u2019s helping me a lot today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vicario, Tottenham\u2019s No 1 goalkeeper, is also a team-mate for the Italian national team and the pair and their families are close. They share a connection with Udine, where Vicario was born and Udogie played for two seasons before arriving at Spurs in a deal worth an initial \u00a315million ($20m) in summer 2023.<\/p>\n

It has been a testing week for Vicario, who was booed and jeered by sections of Spurs\u2019 long-suffering home support after a mistake leading to Fulham\u2019s second goal in last weekend\u2019s 2-1 defeat in north London. Udogie says Vicario, 29, has reacted well to the situation, and underlined his quality with a solid display in the 2-2 draw at Newcastle United on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it\u2019s never easy when the fans turn against you,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s always a big challenge, but obviously he\u2019s a grown man and an experienced goalkeeper.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he was really strong. Against Newcastle, he showed he\u2019s a great \u2019keeper. He\u2019s old enough (to deal with it).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a good guy, incredible. We live close to each other and every day we speak. He\u2019s really like a big brother to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Udogie in action during Tottenham\u2019s 2-2 draw at Newcastle this week (Alex Livesey\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Udogie may be replaced in the Spurs team by another close friend, Djed Spence, for the home game against Brentford on Saturday after starting against Fulham and Newcastle, but he says he feels back in \u201crhythm\u201d following a series of niggling injuries since undergoing hamstring surgery in April 2024.<\/p>\n

The operation ruled him out of Euro 2024 with Italy and, in common with just about every player at Spurs, he missed periods of last season with muscle injuries.<\/p>\n

After starting in Bilbao, a knee complaint ruled him out of the start of this term under new head coach Thomas Frank, and Udogie missed another two weeks at the end of October with a similar issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m in my best spell right now where I feel strong, I feel really good, I feel healthy,\u201d he says. \u201cI just want to stay fit, keep going and help the team. I feel like I\u2019m getting to a rhythm. I just have to keep going and take care of my body every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Ange Postecoglou typically instructed his full-backs infield, Udogie has been deployed in a more traditional role by Frank, which he says he prefers.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast season I was more like an inverted full-back,\u201d he says. \u201cThis season, I\u2019m wide. It\u2019s different, but I feel more comfortable now because it\u2019s my natural position. So that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel more like now I understand the league now, I understand the game,\u201d Udogie adds. \u201cThe rhythm, the quality of the players, the intensity. I think almost everything (about the Premier League) is hard. Every year, you have to be ready. It\u2019s never easy, but I\u2019m getting there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Destiny Udogie has no interest in dwelling on the past. For Udogie, even Tottenham Hotspur\u2019s historic Europa League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,4996,574,561,82,16999],"class_list":{"0":"post-327732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-italy","11":"tag-premier-league","12":"tag-soccer","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tottenham-hotspur"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}