Gianluigi Buffon: Juventus players weren’t ready to play with Cristiano Ronaldo

A few days ago Gianluigi Buffon spoke openly about what the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo meant for a club like Juventus. The Italian goalkeeper, after the commotion that these words have caused, wanted to return to the subject in order to clarify it. And more than clarifying it, he has added fuel to the fire.

Buffon commented 15 days ago: “Juventus had the opportunity to win the Champions League the first year it arrived, which was the one I was in Paris. I can’t tell you what happened. When I came back, I worked with Cristiano for two years and we did well together, but I think Juventus lost that DNA of being a team. When we reached the Champions League final in 2017 it was because we were an experienced team and we functioned as a unit. There was that competition within the group for places in the eleven. We lost that with Ronaldo, ”he said.

To curb the criticism against him, the goalkeeper highlighted: “I said that the team lost a bit of DNA because that’s what I think. And, on further reflection, this was not Ronaldo’s fault. When a club hires a player of Ronaldo’s level, they know perfectly what can happen ”, the veteran goalkeeper began justifying in an interview at the Corriere della Sera, which replicates daily AS from Spain.

He added: “You have to understand if the other players are prepared and, in my opinion, the Juventus players were not prepared to play with Ronaldo. Like it or not, everyone has felt their weight in the team and that should never happen, especially in a club like Juventus ”.

“When Cristiano arrived at the club, I had gone to Paris Saint Germain. When I returned, the team was different, it was no longer the same as the one I had left a year before, “he said. (D)