Mourinho made Abraham’s mind up on Roma
ONE phone call from Jose Mourinho and Tammy Abraham was sold. The Roma striker could have stayed at Chelsea. But Mourinho is quite the salesman. ‘I picked up the phone and he was like: “Do you want to enjoy some sun or stay in the rain?”. I laughed,’ said Abraham. ‘At first I didn’t think much of it when we were speaking. I wanted to be in the Premier League. I felt like it was home. But when he speaks, you listen. He’s a good man and has helped me a lot so far and, hopefully, we can build on it. ‘I had different options. But I spoke to Jose and I could see where he wanted Roma to go and I wanted to be part of the process. He really put his trust in me.’ Abraham has immersed himself in life in Rome and endeared himself to fans by singing the club’s stirring anthem ahead of the recent game against Udinese. ‘I love learning. From a young age I’ve always wanted to travel around the world, learn different languages and this has given me the opportunity to learn something new,’ he said. ‘Most of the time, I’m by myself, so I need to find something to keep me entertained. I like learning Italian, so, hopefully, if you give me a couple of months, I could be fluent.’ Gareth Southgate approves of Abraham’s decision to leave his home comforts — two goals and two assists in seven appearances for Roma earning the striker an England recall ahead of Saturday’s World Cup qualifier with Andorra. But not even the 24-year-old could have predicted quite how quickly his decision to leave Chelsea would pay off. His last international call-up came in November 2020. Abraham was playing regularly under Frank Lampard, he was Chelsea’s top scorer and on course to make England’s squad for the delayed Euro 2020. By the end of January, however, Lampard was gone, Thomas Tuchel in charge, and Abraham out of favour. ‘It’s quite tough,’ he said. ‘You’ve gone from playing regularly to not being in the mix. I didn’t really understand it. ‘The easy option would’ve been to stick around. But I realised I needed to go out and prove myself.’