Nainggolan hopes to rediscover the joy of football on Cagliari return

“As if in a long love story, tinged with red and blue, Cagliari and Radja Nainggolan are together once again,” said Cagliari in a statement, confirming that the Belgian had joined them on loan from Inter for the rest of the season.

Nainggolan began his Serie A career with Cagliari in 2010, before moving to AS Roma in 2014. After four impressive seasons with Roma -- where he played under Cagliari’s current coach Eusebio Di Francesco -- he joined Inter in 2018 but that move never worked out.

He was loaned to Cagliari for the whole of last season and, having returned to Inter, made only four Serie A appearances for Antonio Conte’s side in the first half of the current campaign.

“I’m here because I want to rediscover the joy of playing football that was taken away from me in this first part of the season,” Nainggolan told reporters.