Leonardo Bonucci has revealed some of the background on his move to join AC Milan back in the summer of 2017, revealing that he rejected Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain.
There was quite a lot of surprise that summer when Marco Fassone and Massimiliano Mirabelli paid a big amount in terms of transfer fee and salary to sign him from Juventus under Yonghong Li’s ownership, making him the club captain too.
However, it was not a marriage made in heaven and he returned to Juve one year later, with Mattia Caldara and Gonzalo Higuain (on loan) coming the other way. The Italian defender has always been honest about his time with the Rossoneri, admitting he made the switch out of ‘anger’.
Bonucci spoke on Sky last night as he was working as a pundit for the Fiorentina game and he was asked about leaving Juventus, joining Milan and the other teams that were keen on him.
“I went to Milan because there had been the famous disagreement with Allegri. I still wanted to stay close to home because of the well-known events that had happened with my son. I didn’t feel like going abroad because when you change it’s always a question mark,” he said (via MilanNews).
“I went to Milan because a new era was starting. With many purchases, Mirabelli and Fassone made 12. And then at the end of the year, when everything fell apart, they told me ‘there’s no more room for you here’.
“So I said if I have to leave, get out of this cycle, I want to return to Juventus. These dynamics got stuck, but the choice was because an energy had been created inside, between me, the coach and the club, that was no longer flowing as it should have and who could break it could only be.
“Allegri had renewed after the Champions League final. The club is one and decides and so in that case we all agreed that the roads could not continue because it would not have been a bad thing, but it would still have been difficult to put everything back in order without moving away. When we were together again, things were better than before.”
Bonucci was asked if there was truth to the rumours that he could have ended up joining Premier League side Manchester City or Ligue 1 giants PSG, as the reports at the time suggested.
“So I am a correct and sincere person… Both in 2016 and 2017, when I went to Milan. Obviously in 2016 it didn’t materialise for one reason: because Juve would never have sold me and I was happy at that moment at Juve.
“In 2017 Montella and Mirabelli called me and told me ‘You have to come here, you will become captain of the team’. I didn’t want to leave Italy, in those days, when I had given a verbal ok to Milan, both PSG and Manchester City called me but I am like that, that’s the word and I didn’t feel like it. Had they also made a financial offer? Yes.”
I think if he stayed longer he’d settle in better. There was a lot of pressure at the time over making overpayed purchases and montela was just lost with what to do.
I’ll never forget playing kalinic all the time while the 38M Silva benched.