To understand what kind of personality Declan Rice is – in the world of football, but even more so in that of Arsenal – take a look at the frenzied images that followed the Gunners’ longed-for triumph in the Premier League. The people of Islington, North London, had been waiting for that triumph for 22 years: everyone was ready to celebrate as if there were no tomorrow. Photos, videos, autographs. Well, the midfielder stayed there literally until the next day: at 5 in the morning he was still around the Emirates, posing for his fans. With the fresh smile of someone who has just become champion of England.
As Arteta says, who is crazy about him also from a character standpoint, Rice is a player who gives everything for his team in the least conventional way possible – certainly, on top of a contribution on the pitch as a driving force. On the one hand he is a competition animal: always on it, determined to raise the bar match after match, to improve his technical and performative baggage year after year. On the other hand he is a great joker: the candid soul of the Arsenal locker room – as well as being a point of reference, especially for the young ones like Max Dowman. A specialist in pranks, always with the quip ready, capable of defusing the tension that, especially in these months – with the lead in the league over Manchester City ever more thinned out – had inevitably become heavy.
At 27 Rice is a fully formed superstar, one of the most complete and gifted midfielders on the global scene, perhaps a possible future Ballon d’Or – but for further verdicts let us wait for the Champions League final and England at the World Cup. At the same time he is also a lad with an eccentric sense of humour, very British, or always in the words of his coach “the controller of the vibe” within Arsenal. Not only among his teammates: technical staff, cleaning staff, storeroom workers. Everyone finds him a hoot, as the Telegraph explains in this long feature. He is above all an authentic person, emotional, sometimes capable of losing control even in front of the cameras – with tones, these yes, a bit less British, but never really over the top.
Arteta maintains that Declan must learn to control himself, to truly become the best of all. Already today the number 41 comes really close: he creates an enormous amount of play and goalscoring chances, scores when needed, on set pieces he draws trajectories that are very hard to read, he is always in the thick of the action even in the non-possession phase, when he drops back, goes in for the tackle, intercepts balls. Arsenal’s progressive breakthrough passes in large part through his feet. And through his head, with a winning mentality to spare. One example above all? Last month at the Etihad, when the Gunners lose a fundamental head-to-head at the home of Manchester City. Suddenly the momentum for the Premier League race seems to have passed into the hands of their opponents, everyone is ready to extol the umpteenth, punctual psychodrama of the red-and-whites of London. At the final whistle even the players themselves are in the grip of despondency: many hide their heads under their shirts, Martin Odegaard in particular is among the most dejected. At which point Rice goes to him, shakes his head and says to him: “It’s not over here”.
A simple and decisive phrase, yet so precious that once it was picked up by social media the Arsenal fans transformed it into a chant that exploded in the following weeks, right up to the celebration – “He said it’s not done, he said it’s not done: Declan Rice, he said it’s not done”. Word kept. Rice celebrates the Premier League victory until late in the middle of his fans not because he has to, not only because he understands them, but above all because in their midst he has fun. He likes socialising, it doesn’t bother him to put himself out there, to take himself a bit lightly even at his own expense. For example, those who know him say that he is tone-deaf as a bell. And yet, when it’s time to throw himself in he throws himself in: quiz night with friends, a game of golf, singing with the microphone in hand. Not just at the pub, but it has even happened on television too – and it’s not that the stage has improved his timbre: Declan couldn’t care less, he has a blast. And perhaps it is also for this reason that, thanks to his vibe, Arsenal has gone back to winning.