Gianluigi Donnarumma was again left on the bench by Paris Saint-Germain in favour of Keylor Navas, fuelling reports he’ll push for a January move to Juventus.
The goalkeeper was named Player of the Tournament at UEFA EURO 2020 after leading Italy to victory in a penalty shoot-out against England at Wembley Stadium.
However, since leaving Milan as a free agent for PSG, he has played just two games, both in Ligue 1 against Clermont Foot and Olympique Lyonnais.
Donnarumma was benched again for the 2-1 win over FC Metz and is tonight left out for the home match against Montpellier.
This will inevitably cause controversy, not just for Donnarumma, but also for PSG fans who saw the Italy international given a huge contract to sit on the sidelines.
The latest snub from coach Mauricio Pochettino will further boost the reports that Juventus will try to swoop for Donnarumma in January, on loan or on a permanent transfer.
#Donnarumma è davvero un caso: altra panchina col #Psg dopo il suo sfogo e quello di #Raiola https://t.co/bBRxUsCRVK pic.twitter.com/OhWmrQ41SJ
— calciomercato.com (@cmdotcom) September 25, 2021
He should have stayed in Italy in Seria A. Pochettino is biased toward Navas simply because he is of a latin, central american country.
If Pochettino was honestly objective in his player selections he would start Donnarumma more often as Donbarumma is a better athlete and goalkeeper than Navas. Navas is very good but one cannot ignore the fact that Donnarumma won the Player of the Tourament for hos performance during Euro 2020.
Also, Donnarumma should have remained at Milan. Consistent game experience is the best teacher.
Hard to feel sorry for GG PSG is a collection of bastardized players regardless of their world class talent they’re not world class character, then again like I said hard to feel sorry at 1 million euros a month salary
@Peter
For the most part, you are correct. The real issue remains Pochettino’s preference to play latin/hispanic players instead of playing Donnarumma who is Italian.
Donnarumma is, objectively, a better athlete than Navas. NAvas is a very good goalkeeper but Donnarumma is better.
It serves him right,he would have been captaining Ac Milan in UCL
Juventus cant just “swoop in”. He has a 5 year contract worth double what they are paying their current keeper and PSG likely wont let him go on the cheap. We’re talking 40-50m minimun.
Let him stay and warm the bench at PSG. I am having fun watching it.
This is all about ball distribution. It wasn’t much of a topic at AC Milan but at a team with the firepower of PSG it becomes a huge issue. Playing Gigi over Navas will drag down PSG’s offensive output. This is why I believe the rumors of Messi backing Navas. While it wasn’t a huge issue at AC Milan, as the team didn’t really have much firepower, it’s very clear that AC Milan are much more eager to attack with Mike Maignon’s ball distribution skills. Part of the reason Milan have done so well defensively this year is also due to Maignon’s good ball distribution as it affects the opposition’s willingness to bring too many players too far forward.
Gigi has a bright future. There is no doubt about that. But I don’t see him ever being the #1 on a title-contending team in one of Europe’s big leagues. He simply can’t distribute the ball like a top team needs. While Ligue 1 is a good place for him to be, as is Serie A or even Bundesliga, his focus should be on finding a less star-studded team to play for.
This talk of Latin/Hispanic/Italian/Asian/African/Chinesse doesn’t hold any water. Navas is good and doing the job why would a coach wanna put him on the bench just because Donnaruma won the best player at the Euro?. PSG don’t need Donaruma at the moment, they just signed him for when Navas is gone. Navas earns £10M until 2024. Gigio earns the same until 2026 so it doesn’t look like Navas is leaving anytime soon, because no club will pay him the salary and he is not gonna leave and reduce his salary. I thought Gigio saids he joined PSG to win trophies? so he is expecting to just walk in there and put Navas on the bench? He wants the money and he is getting it so no need to complain, If he cares about playing week in week out he would have stayed in Milan
I think Gigio is beyond pocche been biased. navas will always remain a top keeper.a keeper that won 3back to back champions league.moreover football has moved beyond being a GK shot stopper alone to a big club,your distribution matters alot and thats where donna fail. i think he moved for d money and trophy not d game time. you cant bench a top keeper like navas in d name of been euro player of d tournament.
Good point @Joe, I always thought Gigio’s ball distribution was how the manager wanted, but Maignan does it very differently so maybe Gigio did it like that because that’s what he was comfortable with. Maignan is much better at getting the ball quickly to a player, whether with a throw or long kick. Donnarumma is no doubt good at blocking shots, but it’s not clear to me that Maignan is any worse at that, and his distribution is so much better, so I think overall we’re much better off with Maignan, financially as well.
As for Donnarumma, if PSG do sell him in winter or next summer for 40-50 mil to Juve, that’s a great bit of business on their side, picking up a player for free and selling him for a huge profit almost immediately. And that profit should have been ours, if Donnarumma had said he wanted to leave, so we could have sold him rather than waiting for the saga to be dragged out until he could leave on a free. Anyway. I’d rather he rot on the PSG bench than go to Juve. But what’s the point in PSG paying him 12 mil and not use him. Might as well sell him, but I’d rather he go to England or Spain instead of playing for another Italian team.
Donnarumma need to face such for neglecting his chilhood club that brought him to fame. He’s an ingrate
Ayodele! You couldn’t have put any better. All that talk of Hispanic – Italian bias is nonsense, and what makes anyone think gigio is better than navas. Lol.
This whole situation was engineered from the start.
Juve knew if they signed Donna direct from Milan on a free, the milan fans would go mad, especially after all the issues with Ultras regarding Donna.
This way it gives the Milan fans time to calm down.
It also helps PSG make money for nothing effectively balancing their books for a while.
Mino is a snake in the grass and facilitating all this espionage.
MIlan would do well to never sign any of Mino’s players ever again. Don’t feed the (already too fat) snake.