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.”