Patrice Evra reveals the two reasons behind Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus exit and how he surprised the Bianconeri veterans when Max Allegri replaced Antonio Conte.
Evra, a former Manchester United and Juventus defender, spoke to La Repubblica newspaper about his playing career and his time in Turin.
The Frenchman joined the Bianconeri as a free agent in 2014 and left the club in January 2016.
Evra signed with Juventus thinking that Conte would be in charge of the team, but the Italian coach resigned one day after the beginning of the pre-season.
“I thought I was back at Manchester United, when David Moyes replaced Alex Ferguson,” Evra recalled.
“I told my Juventus teammates: ‘Wake up, Ferguson is the best coach of all times, Conte is a genius, but you are the ones who went on the pitch. We have no excuses.’
“Buffon, Chiellini and Barzagli were left stunned by that speech. They realized how much I loved Juventus, even if I had just arrived.”
Juventus lost the Champions League Final against Barcelona during Evra’s first season at the club, but the former defender believes the Bianconeri could have won it.
“In Italy, they work too hard. You must find the right balance,” he said.
“Don’t get me wrong, I always worked hard. But in Italy it’s just too much. At Juventus, they think that they’d never win if they don’t train really, really hard. It’s not true. To me, it shows insecurity.
“Had we not get to that Final so tired, mentally and physically, we could have won it. In England, you sing and dance before the big games. In Italy, there is too much pressure on footballers.
“On the Juventus bus, everybody was watching Sky Sport or reading sports papers. I told them: ‘Guys, you can’t think about football all the time, or you’ll lose the joy to play.'”
Evra is a close friend of Cristiano Ronaldo, who left Juventus in the summer, returning to Real Madrid. Why did Ronaldo leave Turin?
“Because he needs love and respect,” said Evra.
“He had understood that in Turin, he was becoming the scapegoat for Juventus’ bad results.
“However, many forget that it’s not easy to win in Serie A. Agnelli’s target is to win the Scudetto every year, not the Champions League.
“Allegri’s words also had a role in Ronaldo’s exit,” continued Evra.
“He said ‘Ronaldo won’t play all games,’ there’s no reason to say it publicly, just keep it private because Cristiano is affected from things like this.”
However, the former defender believes Juventus shouldn’t have sacked Allegri in 2019.
“I respect Sarri and Pirlo did a great job, but, as I also told Agnelli, he shouldn’t have sacked Allegri in 2019.
“He has an incredible eye for football, he always knows what will happen in a game before it even starts. In Dortmund, when we played against Borussia in 2015, he had predicted everything that happened in the game.
“He told us: ‘This is like a friendly for us’ and only a few days earlier he was screaming and shouting at us for a game against Genoa. He is obsessed with games against small teams. He is not worried about big matches. That’s another lesson I’ve learned from him.”
La mia intervista integrale (versione molto più estesa del giornale) a Patrice @evra su @repubblica.
Perché Chiellini è ancora arrabbiato con lui, perché Salvioni è un mito come Allegri e Ferguson, Marsala che lo salvò, la più bella qualità di Allegri.https://t.co/WJmt5uYNuC
— Antonello Guerrera (@antoguerrera) October 29, 2021
Boy, for a guy who spent less than half a decade at Juventus, he sure likes up open up that idiotic sewer of a mouth a lot. And I mean a LOT.
“Buffon, Chiellini and Barzagli were left stunned by that speech.”
What nonsense, the guys who’ve spent their entire lives at the club are going to take inspiration from a nothing guy? LMFAO!
I am not a Juve fan but what is he saying. Ronaldo came to juve to try to prove how good he was and failed, thats basically it. He opened his arrogant mouth and relaized how hard it was in Italy so he left the team to go to an amateur league which is where he came from originally which was an amateur league. He also realized that UEFA hates Seria A and Italy and was so used to UEFA assisting him in winning those UCLs at Real Madrid. Worst thing to happen to Juve. Ronaldo is no GOAT by far. Thats why Messi wont come to Italy and he is 100% Italian origin.
@Pinturicchio ‘nothing’ guy? He is the captain of Man U who won a stupendous number of Premier League and Champions League titles! You clearly don’t know what you are talking about!
If Ronaldo stops scoring at manu, and he likely will for a period, he will truly see what being a scapegoat for bad results is. He was very respected at Juve. The problem was that love and respect was not mutual. Ronaldo never loved juve and it was obvious. He came to win, sure, he came to get a CL sure but ultimately, he also came for a tax break and came WHEN he was embroiled in the biggest turmoil of his career with those allegations that proved to be untrue. Still, he hid away in Turin and they showed him all the love in the world despite the headlines about that woman but for him it was just a “job”..a stop over to spite Perez at madrid and hold over until he could go somewhere he felt was a bigger club.
@Some dumb jock called GAZ
You can be the captain or vice-captain elsewhere, but you are nothing in Juventus. That’s what I was referring to.
Evra talks way too much BS these days, and instead of keeping quiet and making whatever nonsense Tiktok videos he does, he acts like he’s the Alpha & Omega of Football.
LOL, listen you little punk Gaz, go BS about Evra elsewhere, this is about Juventus, not ManU or EPL.
The Juve fans are all about team first and players second. A player is not bigger than the game, or in this case the team, is no truer than at Juve. Hence, exit stage left.