Yesterday, when writing an article about Alessio Cerci’s scuppered transfer to Manchester City, we mused at the many ‘what could have beens’ that have happened in football over the years.
What if Manchester United had signed Ronaldinho?
How would have Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s career turned out had he signed for Arsenal instead of Ajax?
On Tuesday, Gazzetta dello Sport, when talking to former Juventus goalkeeping coach Michelangelo Rampulla, give us a new one: ‘What would have happened if the Serie A club had signed David De Gea?’
Now, this isn’t recent, so don’t worry, because they’re not really interested as things stand.
This was back in 2006, when the club had just been forcefully relegated to Serie B following Calciopoli, and the Italian side weren’t sure who would stay and who would leave.
Rampulla explained: “I’ll tell you an anecdote: when I became a scout for the Bianconeri, we looked around because we didn’t know if Buffon would stay in Serie B. He stayed, the great person that he is, but I was given a list of possible replacements.
“The very first on that list was the Spaniard De Gea, then he was very young. The best idea is that, given the tradition, Juve relies on an Italian goalkeeper.”
This revelation came as part of an article from Gazzetta where they interviewed a few personalities regarding who could take over from Gianluigi Buffon once the club legend finally calls it a day.
The favourite? Not De Gea. It’s, unsurprisingly, Gianluigi Donnarumma, who is currently valued at around €60m by AC Milan.
