Chelsea and Italy midfielder Jorginho admits he only watched World Cup games in the final stages: ‘I was not interested, I didn’t even know the kick-off times.’
The former Napoli and Hellas Verona star won the Euros with the Azzurri last year, but after barely nine months, Italy failed to qualify for Qatar 2022, losing in the qualification play-off semis to North Macedonia this past March.
Italy had finished runners-up to Switzerland in the qualification group, with Jorginho missing two penalties in two games against the Helvetic.
Perhaps, also, for this reason, he was not interested in watching World Cup games.
“It was very hard, especially at the beginning. It was very hard. I didn’t want to watch games,” he told Sky Sport Italia.
“I went on a trip with my family. I only watched a couple of games of friends who were playing, but I didn’t even know the kick-off time.
“I didn’t want to watch, I was not interested. Towards the end, the Jorginho lover of football was back and started watching something.”
Jorginho joined Chelsea from Napoli in a €57m deal in 2018 and has won the Europa League and the Champions League with the Blues.
The Azzurri star turns 31 today. He made his Italy debut in March 2016 and has gone on to score five games in 46 international appearances.
The full interview will be aired today.
No one is interested in anything this guy has to say we missed the world cup because of him
Maybe it was because he was the one that messed up our chances of qualifying with his terrible penalty technique!
Yeah I know we made a rod for our own back by not finishing off teams we were dominating in the group, but we still had qualification in our own hands and that 2nd penalty vs the Swiss where he took the ball off Beradi (after missing one in the previous game) is unforgivable!!!
Hopefully you never wear the Italian colours again you choker. Italy has better midfielders who should be playing ahead of this guy anyway.
Bulgaria mistake
Switzerland twice penalties
Macedonia goal could have prevented
And euro final but for donnarumma let them back into the shootout
With a stacked midfield no need for him in a squad.
Top players can even make errors but top players don’t make as many as he did from the euro final. He’s not a top player. Four occasions he had a chance to make amends he failed every time
Clearly wasn’t interested enough so he missed two penalties to secure not qualifying for the tournament!
Well said Rocco is fault Italy didn’t qualify
bet all the above posters dont blame baggio in 94 – i wonder why
That was one miss. This guy has fluffed 3 in a row!
He should absolutely never wear the short again. Thank god for donnaruma in the final! He is absolutely ignorant to how he has affected millions of people which makes it even worse!
This Brazilian should never be picked for Italy again.