In a startling revelation, former Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci has revealed that his spat with chief coach Massimiliano Allegri was one of the reasons he left the Turin football giants for AC Milan this summer.
Bonucci, during his move to Italian Serie A rivals Milan for a transfer fee of around $45 million, had said being left in the stands for Juventus’ UEFA Champions League meeting with Porto was the end of his stay at Turin.
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“It all goes back to Porto, but there had been some incidents before that which were perhaps not so evident,” Bonucci told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “For me, all that counts now is Milan. Juve is in the past.
“I thank them for all that they gave me — I became one of the best defenders in the world with them — but when you take certain kinds of decisions then you have to take responsibility for them and you also have to pay the consequences. Juve and Allegri made some clear choices last season and I have just made the consequences of them,” the 30-year-old added.
“Certainly I no longer saw things as I had done previously, but the decision (to leave) was taken mutually with the club, so it is not all my making.”
Talking about the reason he chose Milan, Bonucci said: “It’s because they had an ambitious project. I thrive on challenges and (Milan’s general manager Marco) Fassone and (sporting director Massimiliano) Mirabelli made me feel important and they really wanted me, otherwise the negotiations wouldn’t have lasted just 48 hours.
“On the other hand, either love sparks immediately or it never grows at all. And it’s got nothing to do with money either — to anybody branding me a money-grabber all I can say is that I had other offers also from abroad, and I would have earned more there.”
The Italian international, who won six consecutive league titles and reached two Champions League finals with Juventus, said that he can be Andrea Pirlo — the veteran midfielder became the fulcrum of Juventus as the Turin outfit got back to be a winning club since the player’s switch from AC Milan in 2011.
“I hope to do at Milan what (Andrea) Pirlo did at Juve, just the other way around. One of the reasons why I joined Milan was to repeat the path I’ve been on with the Bianconeri, when we started off from scratch and reached high.
“Now I want to go even higher. Within four years, I hope to win the Champions League. I want to win everything.”
