Juventus won the Serie A title during Cristiano Ronaldo’s three-year spell in Turin. However, Bianconeri legend Gianluigi Buffon has claimed that despite the positives, the side lose a bit of their DNA while trying to adapt to the Portuguese phenom.
The Juventus great examined the positive and the negative impact of Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to the Italian giants in a recent interview with TUDN. The Italian claimed that while the team had the chance to win the Champions League again during Ronaldo’s first season in Turin, it lost some of the cohesion during the latter years of his spell.
Buffon, who has rejoined Parma in July, singled out Juventus’ run to the 2017 Champions League final as an example of the same and claimed that the Old Lady lost some of that “DNA” trying to accommodate the five-time Ballon d’Or winner.
“Juventus had the chance to win the Champions League the first year he arrived, which was the year I was at Paris St Germain, and I couldn’t figure out what happened,”
“When I returned, I worked with Ronaldo for two years, and we did well together, but 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 and there was this competition for places within the group that was very strong. We lost that with Ronaldo.”
the 43-year-old said.
While Ronaldo’s spell in Italy was far from disastrous, it failed to bring continental silverware back to Turin as desired. The Bianconeri failed to progress past the quarter-finals in all of Ronaldo’s three seasons at the club and were knocked out by sides significantly weaker than them on paper.
During this time, the club also went through three different head coaches – Massimiliano Allegri, Maurizio Sarri, and Andrea Pirlo.
Nonetheless, the Portuguese still helped Juventus to the Italian crown for the first two seasons. He netted 101 goals in 134 appearances, leading his team to the domestic title in 2018/19 and 2019/20. He also helped the team win the Italian Cup in 2020/21 and the Italian Super Cup in 2018 and 2020.
