Marijampolės Futbolio Center student (the 1997 team's coach V. Žilinskas), this season's representative of the Marijampolė "Sūduva" team, football player Giedrius Matulevičius has signed a 3-year contract with the Italian Serie A team "Parma".
The 16-year-old goalkeeper will fly to Italy on Friday, where he will start training with the "Parma" team born in 1996-97.
Last year, Giedrius traveled twice to Italy to train with Italian clubs. Speaking about the style of football in that country, G. Matulevičius stated that the Italian style of play is somewhat more acceptable to him than the Lithuanian style: "I like Italian football, it is more technical, faster than Lithuanian football," said the young "Sūduva" player.
- This season you trained with the main "Sūduva" team, managed to debut in the A League. Did that bring a lot of benefits? - fksuduva.lt asked G. Matulevičius.
- Of course, playing with older players is different and beneficial. I received a lot of advice that helped me improve.
- You're leaving for "Parma" club. What do you know about it?
- I know little for now. I know that last year this team finished 10th in Serie A. I heard that for the new season the club acquired Italian national team striker A. Cassano.
- What goals do you set for yourself in the near future?
- First, establish myself in my age group team, and in the future, of course, I would like to break into the main team.
- You're 16 years old, and you'll be leaving so far from home. Won't it be difficult?
- I'll have to leave home, but that's life. If you want to be a footballer, sometimes you have to make such decisions. I would like to wish all my teammates and coaches good luck. I wish that "Sūduva" will achieve a prize-winning place in the championship this year, and will fight for the title of champions next year.
This season, G. Matulevičius played two matches in the "SMScredit.lt A League", during which he spent 17 minutes on the field and did not have time to score.