Juventus defender, Leonardo Bonucci, revealed the bad effect of the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo on the Old Lady. Cristiano Ronaldo was brought in by Juventus from Real Madrid in 2018 to become the last piece of the team in the Old Lady’s hunt for the Champions League trophy.
Three coaches and three seasons later, Cristiano Ronaldo failed to lead Juventus to win the Big Ear trophy. CR7 chose to leave in the summer transfer window of 2021 and return to his old club, Manchester United.
The Portuguese superstar left Juventus after scoring 101 goals in 134 games, including 14 of 23 in the Champions League. Ronaldo also presented two Italian League titles and one Coppa Italia for the Turin club. However, who would have thought that Ronaldo’s presence at Juventus had a negative effect on his teammates.
This was revealed by Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci. Bonucci did not deny that Ronaldo’s presence had a positive impact on the team. However, Ronaldo also made the Old Lady’s players subconsciously think that his presence was enough to win the game. As a result, this thought made the Juventus players not want to try more to win.
“This is the problem,” Bonucci told The Athletic from Football Italia. “Cristiano’s presence had a huge impact on us. Just training with him gave us something extra. However, subconsciously the players started to think that his presence alone was enough to win the game.”
“We started failing in our day-to-day work, humility, sacrifice, desire to be there for your team-mates day in and day out. Over the past few years, I think you can see it. Last season, we finished fourth and won the Coppa Italia because we were a team again.”, he continued.
“If you threw a piece of wood into the locker room before that game, it would burn like electricity running through it. We missed that. Maybe it’s taken for granted that if we give the ball to Cristiano he will win the game for us. But Cristiano needs the team as much as we need him. There has to be a trade-off because it’s the team that lifts the individual even if the individual is the best player on the planet.”, he ended.
