Veteran Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini has confirmed that this season will be his last with the club. The 37-year-old has a contract with the club until 2022-23 but has decided to call time on his Bianconeri career after 18 years in Turin.
Speaking after Juve’s 4-2 defeat to Inter in the Coppa Italia final, Chiellini expressed his disappointment at the result but also confirmed he will be moving on in the summer:
It’s disappointing, especially as Inter certainly had more of the ball, but we had more than enough chances. Mattia Perin basically didn’t have to make a save, we conceded two fantastic goals and two penalties.
Inter proved throughout the season they are stronger in all the head-to-head clashes, so that means something. I hope the anger of losing three out of four games against Inter will fire us up for next season.
We know that you don’t win a Scudetto just in the big games, but every day. It’s a pity to end the season without trophies after a decade, but we need to use it as fuel for next season.
We know that something didn’t work, there was a process of improvement, but we saw in the head-to-heads that we were not as strong as the others.
With all due respect, Milan are not as strong a squad as Inter, yet they are ahead right now. That means it takes more than just quality and this team is missing something in terms of determination, hunger that characterised Juve for all these years and it needs to be found as soon as possible.
There are eras and I went through it, I was there with two seasons of seventh-place finishes, the previous era had finished and the new one needed to emerge. We have to be aware of that.
I think the coach is the best person to transfer that DNA to the squad in future and this team cannot afford to end another season without trophies.
We had these 10 magnificent years, it’s up to the lads to continue now. I did everything I could, I hope that I left something. On Monday I will say goodbye to my Juventus Stadium, then if I’ve still got something in the tank might have a run-out in Florence.
It is my choice 100 per cent, I am happy to leave at such a high level, because for many years I’ve said I didn’t want to finish struggling and not being able to play at my level.
I gave it my all, soon I will be the biggest Juventus fan from the outside. After so many years within this club, you cannot shake it off.”
