Borja Valero admits he ‘expected more’ from Dusan Vlahovic at Juventus, while he reveals what it was like to be teammates with Mohamed Salah at Fiorentina. ‘He has a unique characteristic you don’t notice.’
The midfielder is still playing for a local club side, Centro Storico Lebowski, but above all working as a pundit on DAZN in Italy.
He was at Fiorentina until the summer of 2021, so was teammates with Vlahovic before the January 2022 transfer to Juventus for a massive €81.6m plus bonuses fee.
“The Bianconeri fans had very high expectations of Vlahovic, especially for everything he had done in Florence,” said Borja Valero on DAZN.
“Considering the amount that Juve paid to get him, it’s true to say that I expected more from him. He should’ve done more.”
The Spaniard was previously with the Viola from 2012 to 2017, so was at the Stadio Artemio Franchi when current Liverpool star Salah was still starting his career.
“I remember our very first training session together. He has this unique characteristic you don’t notice. Everyone thinks of his pace or dynamism, which is all true, but I am referring to his ability to win every single ricochet.”
Naturally, at Salah’s age at the time he was even more of a rocket running up the pitch than he is now.
“You could try to take him on, one on one, but knew full well he’d end up going past you. Even kicking him was out of the question, he’d already be five metres away by the time you turned around.” Salah is now 30 years old and had been on loan at Fiorentina from Chelsea for only six months in 2015.