Danilo D'Ambrosio is one of Italian football's rising stars at present after joining Inter Milan in the January transfer window and might have joined Chelsea earlier on in his career. During his days at Salernitana - where he cut his teeth as a youth - the fullback was approached by Chelsea at the age of just 16. The defender travelled to England with his family and gave the move serious consideration, but opted to stay in Italy as the youngster did not want to split from his family and joined Fiorentina over the Blues. D'Ambrosio explained: I was 16 years old and Chelsea wanted me.
I remember that I went to London with my father. I remember everything, the crazy environment, facilities, fantastic but in the end, in agreement with my family, I decided not to go there. There was the fear of not progressing. Of course, I was offered a nice contract, but my parents always told me that money is not everything in life and, furthermore, I did not want to split the family at that time. Thus, both myself and my brother, we went to Florence, without a contract."
Chelsea would later buy Ashley Cole from Arsenal instead and the rest, as they say, is history.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
