Juventus captain Leonardo Bonucci has said that he will leave the Old Lady next year in a special interview with the club’s media channels after reaching 500 appearances across all competitions.
The 36-year-old is nearing the end of the five-year contract he signed in 2019, which is set to expire at the conclusion of the 2023/24 season and now it seems as though the influential centre-back will leave at the end of the deal.
Answering questions about what it meant to be part of such a successful defensive unit along with Giorgio Chiellini, Andrea Barzagli and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, Bonucci joked that they “are all old” and that next year, he will also call it a day on his playing career with the Bianconeri.
“When I stop playing next year, an era of our defence will come to an end,” he said during the interview.
“As a child, you dream of wearing a shirt like Juve’s and putting it on 500 times means having made Juve history and it’s a great feeling.”
Bonucci has been a stalwart of the Juventus back line for over a decade, registering 355 Serie A appearances across a 12-year stint, with a spell at Milan in 2017-18 sandwiched in between.
During that time, he has won the league title eight times, four Coppa Italia trophies, the Suppercoppa Italiana on four occasions and featured in the Champions League final in both 2015 and 2017.
The future for Bonucci is yet unknown. Despite hinting at retirement in his Juventus interview, La Gazzetta dello Sport wrote on page 23 of Wednesday morning’s print edition that there is still a possibility of a new adventure abroad, following in Chiellini’s footsteps.
La Gazzetta also claimed that whenever he does decide to hang his boots up, Bonucci will embark on a journey into management and that he has the potential to become a “top coach.”