Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci revealed he rejected a chance to join Manchester United in favour of a return to the Bianconeri.
The 31-year-old was linked with several clubs in the summer once it was clear he would leave AC Milan, with the Red Devils mentioned as a possible landing spot.
Instead Bonucci joined Juventus in a swap deal for Mattia Caldara, as once he learned of the Bianconeri’s interest, he didn’t take any other offers into consideration.
“Yes,” Bonucci told the Telegraph when asked if he received an offer from United during the summer.
“Basically there have been some possibilities both with Manchester City and with Manchester United. With Manchester City when I received that offer (in 2016) I actually talked to the club, I talked to Juventus and we decided that it was good for me to stay and to keep on winning with Juventus.
“This year when I was told there was a possibility to go back home, to come back to Juventus I just stopped listening to any other offers and I decided to come back here.
“I feel at home. Here I really do my best, I just push myself to the maximum and that’s something at Milan I really didn’t manage, I didn’t succeed to achieve and that was probably because in my heart I had already made the decision that I wanted to go back home.
“The decision was not made until June but it’s true that I had this feeling inside me. So when my agent told me there was a tangible opportunity to go back I just stopped listening to anyone telling me what to do, I stopped listening to any kind of suggestion and I just said ‘OK, let’s go home’.”
Bonucci also revealed the reason behind his initial decision to leave Juventus, which was in large part due to breakdown in his relationship with coach Massimiliano Allegri.
“At that time I made a decision driven by pride and I was upset by a specific situation,” he added.
“And so I was not myself any more and I decided to leave. Then with the passing of time I realised that I had probably had the wrong attitude and so those expectations that I believed were not met, well it was not actually like that. So I changed my mind.”
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com