De Ligt: Money not a factor

By Football Italia staff

Juventus new boy Matthijs de Ligt has rubbished ‘nonsense’ that he rejected Paris Saint-Germain because he would earn less than Kylian Mbappe.

De Ligt recently completed an €85.5m transfer to Juve from Ajax, but not before he was linked with the likes of Barcelona, Manchester United and PSG.

“When you think of Italy, you think of defenders,” the defender told Algemeen Dagblad.

“The best Italian players in history are defenders: was a fan of Baresi, Maldini, Cannavaro and Nesta growing up.

“I still have a Juventus shirt from when I was seven years old. I believe that arriving in Turin will make me a more complete defender.

“Of course, I grew up with Ajax football and their philosophy of total football: good football is also important here, but the priority of course is to win.

“With players like Buffon, Chiellini and Cristiano Ronaldo around me, I can take the next step: they have a lot of experience and I’ll try to get something from each of them.

“I tried to keep as much distance [from the speculation] as possible. At one point, it became a bit tiring.

“The craziest thing I’ve read is that I wouldn’t have gone to PSG because I wouldn’t have earned more money than Mbappe. What a load of nonsense...

“I always told Mino that I’d announce my destination after the Nations League. Until then, I wanted to keep my focus high on the playing field.

“As soon as I told him of my intention to go to Juventus, he started working on it. Money isn’t a factor for me, everyone who knows me knows that.

“Mino is my agent and he takes care of the business side of things. The financial aspect came after I’d made my sporting choice.”

Image credit @juventusfcen via Twitter

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