Alessandro Bastoni has thanked Giorgio Chiellini, who assured the Inter centre-back will be his heir for Italy. ‘We can sleep easy at night.’
The Juventus veteran played his final game for the Bianconeri in last night’s 2-2 draw with Lazio at the Allianz Juventus Stadium.
He will play for Italy in the upcoming Finalissima against Copa America winners Argentina at Wembley Stadium and perhaps the Nations League games too, but after that hang up his Azzurri jersey for good.
“When Andrea Pirlo retired, everyone was worried about finding the new Pirlo, but there isn’t anyone with his characteristics, so we had to create a new type of team,” Chiellini told Sky Sport Italia.
“Bastoni has different characteristics to me, but Italy can sleep easy at night knowing he is there and I can assure you he will be remembered not as the new Chiellini, but as Alessandro Bastoni.”
The Inter defender thanked his Italy teammate via social media for the compliment and passing on of the baton.
Bastoni turned 23 last month and has 11 senior caps for the Nazionale under his belt.
He has played 43 competitive matches this season for Inter, contributing one goal and three assists.
His Inter beat Juventus to both the Supercoppa Italiana and the Coppa Italia.
Very good defender. I have been impressed with his defending and going forward. We just need another good central half defender to be along side him.
Italy should build the national team defence around, bastoni ,mancini of as roma , ogbonna of westham, bunochi of Juventus, di Marco of inter Milan, and arcebi of Lazio . There is 6 central defenders on that list .