Canna admits age concern
Tuesday 28 November, 2006
Golden Ball winner Fabio Cannavaro has admitted that he would have stayed at Juventus had he been younger.
The defender left the Bianconeri to join Real Madrid in the summer after the Old Lady was demoted to Serie B for their role in Calciopoli.
However, the new European Player of the Year believes things would have been different had he not been 33-years-old.
“Playing in Serie B was not a sacrifice,” Cannavaro told France Football. “Had I been younger I think I would have stayed in Turin, but then I received the offer from Spain.
“Had I stayed with Juventus I might have returned to Serie A at 35, when many players start to consider the idea of retiring.
“I had a unique chance to wear the Real Madrid outfit and continue playing at the highest level. For any other club, except Napoli of course, I would have never even considered the offer.”
Cannavaro then moved on to speak about the Calciopoli scandal, although the player insists that the trophies won by Juventus were all deserved on the pitch.
“Everyone knew of Luciano Moggi’s contacts and how powerful Juve were, but we had no idea how far that could go. In any case, that does not change the fact that we were the best club.
“I still remember when Mahamadou Diarra came to me and said ‘Ah, Moggi – money!’. I tried to explain that Moggi did not visit referees to offer them money.
“With the power he had he could influence the assignment of a referee to one match instead of another, which I know is not a normal procedure,” explained the Azzurri captain.
“The problem is that people, especially abroad, believe that Juve bought the matches, but that is not true.
“It was a huge abuse of power that must be condemned, but that was also useless. We were the best and we proved it.
“On July 9 there were eight Bianconeri, plus some former players like Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry, on the Berlin pitch for the World Cup Final,” concluded Cannavaro.
