Marco Verratti insists his Paris Saint-Germain teammate Gianluigi Buffon “will always answer” if Italy call on him.
The 40-year-old asked Azzurri CT Roberto Mancini not to call him after he took over, partly because he felt fans and media didn’t want him.
“It’s his home!” Verratti told Le Parisien, when asked about Buffon and the national team.
“I’m sure that if Italy needs him, he will always answer. When we talk about it he tells me that he’ll always be there to help the team.
Marco Verratti insists his Paris Saint-Germain teammate Gianluigi Buffon “will always answer” if Italy call on him.
The 40-year-old asked Azzurri CT Roberto Mancini not to call him after he took over, partly because he felt fans and media didn’t want him.
“It’s his home!” Verratti told Le Parisien, when asked about Buffon and the national team.
“I’m sure that if Italy needs him, he will always answer. When we talk about it he tells me that he’ll always be there to help the team.
“It’s up to the CT, and they may have spoken. We’ll see what happens in the important matches.”
Last month Buffon said that Verratti was Italy’s only true talent, and the midfielder was asked about that.
“I thank him, but it’s just his opinion. It makes me happy, but I think there are other talents. We may not be the Italy of the past, where there really were phenomena, so we have to work more as a team.
“We need to take Italy back to where it deserves to be, and we haven’t done that in recent years.”