A debunked story suggested Leonardo Bonucci and Dani Alves had a locker room brawl during the Champions League Final, allegedly confirmed by Mario Mandzukic.
There were already reports of a row at half-time in Cardiff between Bonucci and Paulo Dybala, denied by everyone involved, but a new version emerged today.
It allegedly occurred before the 4-1 defeat to Real Madrid and involved Dani Alves instead of Dybala.
A debunked story suggested Leonardo Bonucci and Dani Alves had a locker room brawl during the Champions League Final, allegedly confirmed by Mario Mandzukic.
There were already reports of a row at half-time in Cardiff between Bonucci and Paulo Dybala, denied by everyone involved, but a new version emerged today.
It allegedly occurred before the 4-1 defeat to Real Madrid and involved Dani Alves instead of Dybala.
It has even been traced back to Storie Romantiche, a Facebook page dedicated to churning out fake news stories about football, but had gained traction online in Italy.
“I want to intervene to silence the rumours of an ugly atmosphere inside the Juve locker room,” Mandzukic was quoted on spaziomilan.it.
“It was simply Bonucci and Dani Alves to have created this chaos and, fortunately, with their sales everything will become calm again.
“They were the ones who had a row during the Final and it’s simply because they have diametrically opposed personalities. Leo and Dani would argue all the time and, on the day of the Final, we simply watched another of their many dramas.
“As soon as we got into the locker room, everyone had treated this like a normal game with just three points up for grabs, or at least that’s how it seemed. So we expected Dani Alves to do his usual routine of putting on the Radio Party Groove music in the locker room while we were getting changed.
“This time, though, he didn’t stop there. He went over the top, playing Samba Do Janeiro at full volume as if he wanted to break our eardrums and then started dancing like there was no tomorrow.
“I thought he was being stupid, but ignored him and went to my locker. Leo didn’t, as for him the Champions League was an obsession.
“He went up to Dani and said he’d break his legs in three seconds if he didn’t turn off that music. Obviously, a row erupted and it just kept going, until Dani Alves said that if he lost the Final, he’d still have three Champions League trophies in his locker, whereas Bonucci had none.
“At that point, everyone turned around scandalised. I’ve won the Champions League, but I’d never dare say something like that. We shouldn’t even have thought about the eventuality of defeat.
“Then Leo grabbed Dani by the throat and, as he was about to punch him, Max (Allegri) divided them and took a decision of a real leader: he said he didn’t care who started it, but at the end of the game they’d both get kicked out.
“It was the wisest decision ever made. Now, the group is calm and united again, without the annoying bragging of Leo and the usual Brazilian pain in the neck of Dani Alves, who would never let us just get changed and focus.”
This would explain why Bonucci was sold to Milan for just €42m and Dani Alves even had his contract terminated early by mutual consent.
It also makes clear why the only Juve player to publicly salute Bonucci was Gigi Buffon, while Dani Alves was also largely ignored after his move to PSG.