“Juventus Lost DNA”: Club Legend Complains About Cristiano Ronaldo’s Influence on Team

Juventus is one of the biggest clubs in the world and the Italian club has a pedigree of dominating their domestic competition. However, for a long time now, they have failed to win the biggest competition of them all, the UEFA Champions League. Even signing Cristiano Ronaldo, Mr Champions League himself, didn’t work out well for Juve.

Juventus got close to “Big Ears” multiple times; the closest was in 2017 when Real Madrid beat them in the final, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid. That stung a proud team with an ageing spine, and yet, they were able to keep their stronghold on the Serie A.

One year later, when they signed Cristiano Ronaldo, they had won the Scudetto seven times in a row, and people had high hopes, but it didn’t happen.

Buffon talks about the effect Cristiano Ronaldo had on Juventus

Gianluigi Buffon, Juve’s legendary keeper, was Ronaldo’s teammate for a brief period. However, they were knocked out of the UCL by Ajax in 2019, and it was all downhill from there. Buffon talked about it all in an interview with TUDN and revealed what Juventus lost.

“I think Juventus 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… We lost that with Ronaldo,” Buffon said. Ronaldo’s tendency to hog the spotlight, and the ball, on occasions, did lead to a unified Juve side becoming centered around one man.

The state of Juventus and Ronaldo after his departure from Turin

That statement is hard to believe because even after Ronaldo’s departure, Juventus are still struggling in the league. They barely made it to the UCL last season, with Ronaldo’s 30 goals carrying them to fourth place. This time around, they are fifth in the league after half of the season is over and are 12 points behind table-topping Inter Milan.

However, that is also down to the fact that the instability in managers over the last year along with the poor squad building has had wider repercussions for the club. What do you make of Buffon’s comments?

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