He is one of the few to have experienced them all. For the third time in a row, Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup, and this new disillusionment will remain in Gianluigi Donnarumma’s throat for a long time.
“Move forward”, despite everything
The captain of the national selection (27 years old), who was already there in 2018 and 2022, was unable to do anything during the penalty shootout which decided the fate of his team against Bosnia on March 31 (1-1, 4-1 tab). Sadness brought tears to his eyes during the interview given to Sky Sport and broadcast on Wednesday evening, in which he looks back on this sad evening.
“I have a lot of difficulty digesting, but the truth is that we have to react,” he said. These were very hard and trying days, as for all Italians. We all really wanted to go to the World Cup, unfortunately we didn’t make it and we have to accept that. We must move forward, even if it hurts, really hurts. »
The destiny of the goalkeeper trained at AC Milan is singular. He was the great architect of the Italian coronation during Euro 2021, but after ten years in the selection, he has still not tasted a single World Cup match. Hard to wait until you’re 31 (at best) for that when you started your international career at 16. “It’s hard, but we must continue with strength and the conviction that Italy will become great again,” he tries to put things into perspective.
For this to happen, Italian football will have to go through profound reforms, which it has always pushed under the rug until now. The rebound cannot be achieved with a snap of the fingers. While waiting to see the decisions that will be taken, the former PSG goalkeeper wanted to deny the newspaper’s information The Republic concerning the qualification bonuses requested by the players even before the match in Bosnia.
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“I was hurt by that. As captain, I never asked for 1 euro from the Italian selection, assures Gigio. Nobody ever asked the Federation for anything: our reward was to go to the World Cup, and we didn’t make it. »
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