Chelsea’s fitness coach, Paolo Bertelli has added another angle to factors trailing the loan deal that took Ola Aina to AS Torino of Italy, as he reckons playing in Serie A will accord the Super Eagles defender opportunities to develop himself technically and tactically.
Although Bertelli acknowledged that Aina already has a lot of strength and pace, which makes the defender one of the fastest players he has worked with, the fitness expert says playing in Italy would allow the lad develop the tactical level of his game as well.
Aina caught the eye in his first three matches for Torino in the Serie A with his physical attributes and was set to make his competitive debut for Nigeria against Seychelles on Saturday but pulled out of the squad due to injury.
Torino are now sweating on his fitness ahead of next weekend’s meeting with Udinese, but Bertelli is confident that Aina will be a better player under the guidance of Walter Mazzarri at the Turin club, having earlier worked with Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte.
Bertelli said: ”In Italy he will learn a lot at a tactical level, he has to mature in this respect, but he has enormous growth.
”In the Championship you play man against man across the board, in Serie A is very different, but he has already done two seasons with Conte and certainly Mazzarri can teach him so much.
”With the three-man defence he can express himself at best because he can run all over the pitch, he has a lot of resistance.
”He is technically and very strong on a physical level. He’s one of the fastest players I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen so many in my career.
”In our tests he has reached 35 kilometres per hour, (and) there are few in the world that can do these things.”
