He recalled to La Gazzetta dello Sport: "I don't want to sound arrogant, but in those six months I was by far the best player in the team and there were Balotelli, Kak, Robinho. The fans knew it, Seedorf (coach at the time) loved me, he was great. After just two months there was talk of the transfer, but in the summer everything changed (January 2015)."
He also recalled: "I remember an argument I've never seen before. I know it seems strange to hear it because Kak is the 'perfect boy', but it happened. In short, it went like this: exercises, attack against defense, instead to serve Ricky I passed the ball to Balotelli, so he started shouting at me 'Damn, it's Kak!', I was amazed, but he didn't stop, so at a certain point I put my hands around his neck.
"You're Kak, but if you scream I lose my mind. The next day, however, he apologised and took me out to lunch. At the time the dressing room had clans. Some didn't want to help Seedorf, others did. I was in the middle."