Gianluigi Buffon claims Juventus lost their team spirit when Cristiano Ronaldo joined the club.
The Portugal attacker was at the Allianz Stadium between 2018 and 2021 and scored over 100 goals for the Bianconeri.
Juve reached the final of the Champions League in 2015 and 2017, while Ronaldo had dominated the competition with Real Madrid.
He won it in 2018 before leaving and Juve had hoped he would lead them to victory in it.
However, they never reached the semi-finals when he was in the team and lost out at the Round of 16 stages in the last two seasons.
Buffon believes the team reached those finals because they had built a spirit of togetherness which was destroyed by the arrival of Ronaldo.
“Juve had the chance to win the Champions League the first year he arrived, which was the year I was at Paris Saint-Germain, and I couldn’t figure out what happened,” said Buffon via Football Italia.
“When I returned, I worked with CR7 for two years and we did well together, but I think Juve lost that DNA of being a team.
“We reached the Champions League Final in 2017 because we were a side full of experience, but above all we were a single unit and there was this competition for places within the group that was very strong. We lost that with Ronaldo.”
Juve FC Says
Team spirit helps every club to achieve success because it is a team sport. When an individual becomes bigger than the group, as Ronaldo seemed to be, it becomes a problem.
While the current Manchester United star can single-handedly win some matches, he is not the best team player.
Now that he is gone, Max Allegri will hope he can build a team that would return the Bianconeri to the successful years.
