«He stopped but didn’t notice it»- Corriere.it

«Bonucci has already stopped, but he didn’t notice it…». Even if this sentence to Mediaset Fabio Cannavaro said it a month ago with his usual sly smile, perhaps his clinical eye hasn’t strayed too far from the truth. Bonucci’s disastrous start with Spain in the semi-final of Nations fueled the question, which among other things has precedents: again against the Spaniards in the Nations at San Siro a few months after winning the European Championship, the Juventus player had shown that without Chiellini it was no longer really the same, neither in blue nor in black and white.

Bonucci’s answers now come only in words, always accompanied by the rhetoric of the warrior, the lion and the Man strictly with a capital U. An approach that does not help to get out of the misunderstanding, even if in front of the microphones Leo relaunches in a more concrete way, with respect to the language of social networks: «We will see who Bonucci is on the field next year». In any case, it will be the year of farewell, already announced by the 36-year-old defender, given that the 7 million net per season contract that binds him to Juve will expire.

As for Cannavaro’s joke, which like most jokes hides its truth, the captain relaunched by Mancini with a three-man defense later disavowed by the coach himself, had commented elegantly: «I respect what Fabio says but I don’t share it, this year I had injuries, also conditioned by off-pitch aspects that didn’t help. But I feel better than a few months ago, Mancini will decide, but I want to enjoy these two matches». It didn’t go like this, why Bonucci was replaced after 45′ against Spain. It is unlikely that he will start playing against the Netherlands, but he always finds some space to increase the number of appearances: he is now at 122, only 4 games less than Paolo Maldini who occupies third place in the rankings behind Cannavaro (136) and Buffon (176). Numbers are important, there’s no denying it. But that’s not all.