Murillo: "Inter debut a dream come true"

APPIANO GENTILE – Jeison Murillo has revealed it was a dream come true to make his debut for Inter after joining the club in the summer of 2015.

Speaking on Inter Channel’s Season Review programme, Murillo said that his highlight of the 2015/16 season was that very first match for the Nerazzurri: "Your first appearance always has real significance. It was a dream come true to make my Inter debut, to play and win at San Siro. It’s something I always wanted to experience and it’s hard to put it into words."

Murillo was already popular with the fans before the season kicked off, having given up his holidays after the Copa America to travel to Milan early for treatment on a broken nose: "That was completely normal. I was desperate to be a part of the club and link up with the team as soon as possible."

The Colombian believes his hard-work ethic was the key reason behind his impressive start to life at the club: "Your day-to-day work is important because it keeps you fit and that gives you confidence on the field. I’d always followed Italian football, but tactically my position is quite delicate so it was a great challenge to come and play here. At the end of the day, my job is to give 100%."

Murillo was also had praise for fellow centre-back Miranda, with whom the Colombian formed a watertight partnership over the course of the campaign: "It’s been great to play alongside Miranda – I’ve learned a lot from him. I try to learn from my mistakes and keep improving.

"The boss was right when he said I’d made a few errors but you just have to kick on from that and learn from it. During matches there’s so much action and adrenaline so the game moves very quickly."

Murillo was one of the stalwarts of the Inter side last season, but the defender was keen to stress the importance of the team as a whole: "I’m proud of that because it means you’re doing well, but we’re all important players: we have a common objective and the only way to achieve it is as a team. My job is to help the team.

"In the first half of the season we conceded very few goals and won lots of matches 1-0. I think we lacked that bit of good fortune in the second half of the season – the ball didn’t want to go in for us and we seemed to concede from the first shot the opposition had. It’s easy to let your head drop when things are going wrong, but that’s football – you learn to take stock properly, take the positives and get better."

Despite his efforts to play down his own contribution, Murillo did take the opportunity to thank Inter fans for voting him as the Nerazzurri’s best young player last season: "I’m delighted and I want to say thank you because it really helps me to keep believing in myself even more. However, as I’ve said, I can improve every day."

Last but not least, Murillo was asked how it felt to score his first goal for Inter: "The main job of a player in my position is to stop the opposition from scoring rather than getting goals myself. If I can score goals too then that’s great, but my first job is to stop us conceding."