'United a holiday compared to Juve'

By Football Italia staff

Patrice Evra has confessed that his time at Manchester United “felt like a holiday” compared to Juventus.

Evra made almost 400 appearances for United between 2006 and 2014, winning five Premier League titles and a Champions League.

However, the retired left-back admitted he found the two seasons he played with Juve at the end of his career much harder.

“Yes,” he said on Sky Sports when asked whether the mentality was different in Italy.

“I won a lot of trophies with Manchester United, and I’m not scared to say that I felt like I was on holiday compared to Juventus.

“The way they worked, the training, even like two days before the game in the hotel... you train on the day of the game.

“Mentally, that’s why I’m so proud of playing for Juventus. It was one of the most difficult challenges in my life and you had one day off per month.

“They control everything, they force you to eat at the club and I learned a lot at the club, also tactically.

“Juventus were one of my biggest challenges and I’m so proud I spent two years and a half with them.

“I didn’t enjoy [the lifestyle] because I like to control myself, but it’s really important for some young players.

“Juventus have this DNA of working hard. I even saw some players vomit and they still finished the training sessions.

“I remember every game they wanted me to run 12km. Sometimes I felt it made no sense because we always had the ball.

“Some games I was running 9km, some 10km, and two days later at training, you have to complete your 12km so they made me run another 2km, 3km.

“The training is harder than the game. Some people say it’s easier to play in Italy but they wouldn’t even be able to train. It was such a shock for me.”

The Frenchman lifted two Scudetti and reached a Champions League Final in his 82 games for the Bianconeri.

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