Rio, nice to catch up with you, tell us how your summer was, first of all?
It was good, thank you. After the England experience, I just spent time back in London and went on holiday with my family and friends. So, yeah, it was good.
How nice and meaningful was it for you to get that call-up from England and tell us a little bit about being involved?
It was crazy, to be fair. I think I got the call-up just before the last game of the season, the technical director of the FA texted me saying, ‘I need to chat with you.’ And then he just told me I’m going to be in the training camp, which is good. Then I got there, then met everyone, training was top, and I got to play. It was an unreal experience I will never forget.
And you really took your chance as well in the game that you had…
Yeah, it was good. I knew that there was no pressure from my side so I could just go out there and express myself and enjoy the occasion.
Looking back on last season with Liverpool, obviously a difficult one collectively but a real breakthrough for you. How do you assess it now? Did you feel you got a lot more comfortable at the level as the season went on?
Definitely. All my teammates, all the boys, they helped me throughout the whole season. Because at the start, they just knew me as an exciting young player that’s coming up. But now I feel like they really see me as one of them, even though I’m still young and they also treat me as a young player, they also treat me like one of them as well. It was very good last season. Obviously not from the team point of view, but I experienced a lot and gained a lot of experience last season.
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