Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci was heavily linked with Manchester City during the summer transfer window.
Leonardo Bonucci has established himself as one of the finest ball-playing centre-backs in the world at Juventus and unsurprisingly, this has led to interests from all the top clubs in Europe for the defender.
For Pep, it’s of paramount importance to build from the back and as such, a defender has to be comfortable on and with the ball along with the ability to pass. Leonardo Bonucci perfectly fits the profile of a ‘Pep centre-back’, which made Manchester City willing to break the bank for the Italian defender in the summer. However, Juventus weren’t ready to sell and the 29 year old defender eventually decided to stay put at the club.
But, now it’s been revealed that Bonucci was so eager to move on from the Italian Champions to play under the tutelage of Pep Guardiola that he called the Manchester based club during the summer transfer window. Manchester City’s CEO, Ferran Soriano, spoke to Barcelona-based radio station RAC1 and said,“ The Italian central defender [Leo] Bonucci wants to play for Pep and he called us. So, I called the Juventus sporting director and he told me they didn’t want to sell. There ended the story!”
Pep Guardiola is one the very best managers in football and has an impressive track record of improving players by his coaching techniques and it’s natural for players to be desperate to play under him and Leonardo Bonucci seems no different. In fact the admiration goes both ways, with Pep having previously expressed his love for the Italian defender, calling him his ‘favourite’.
It will be interesting to see how things develop further with Manchester City likely to come back for Leonardo Bonucci in the upcoming transfer windows.
