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Extended Clip - Leonardo Bonucci Retires: Farewell To An Italy & Juventus Legend (Ep. 421)
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After having announced his retirement at the age of 37, Nima Tavallaey and Carlo Garganese pay tribute to and analyze the career of Italy and Juventus legend Leonardo Bonucci.
This is an extended clip from this weeks free Monday episode of The Italian Football Podcast which is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google podcasts.
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Transcript
Introduction and Bonucci's Retirement
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Italian football podcast. Okay, just before we finish off with Badjo, Primface and Celia Ass of the week, Leonardo Bonucci has announced his retirement from football at the age of 37 years old. His final game for Fenabachi on Sunday. They won. He came on as a second-half substitute, but they didn't win the league. Graziezroi won their game.
Bonucci's Career in Turkey and Legacy
00:00:31
Speaker
so he didn't finish on a high with a trophy. But yeah, it's in some ways a sad ending for Bonucci to see him finish his career like this out in Turkey, spending half a season at Uni in Berlin, which was a disaster, and then moving to Fennebachi, where he didn't really do much better there.
00:00:53
Speaker
Yeah, is but if we look at the career as a whole, I mean, a magnificent career from from Bonucci, he will go down as a as a as a legend, Italian football, Italian football legend. Some Juventus fans still never forgave him for the way that he left Juventus, but he is the Juventus legend for what he achieved, for what he won, for being part of that incredible team, the BBC with Buffon Buffon.
The Decline of Great Defenses
00:01:20
Speaker
Basali Benucci and Keelini, one of the great defenses in modern football. We haven't had many great defenses in the last 15, 20 years in world football because the art form of defense has died. The BBC, this Juventus and Italy defense was one of the exceptions to that rule. Incredible defense and he was the brains beyond that defense. He was the elegance, he was the
00:01:45
Speaker
the the player that started it that started the play from the back incredible range of passing technically fantastic mentally very very strong and you know he was it was a wonderful wonderful career and of course Nima crowned with the Euro 2020 success for for Italy an incredible tournament him and Keilini at the back kind of their last
Bonucci: A Divisive Figure
00:02:14
Speaker
hurrah wasn't it really in football before they both started to get old and decline and he of course scored the he scored in the final he scored the equalizer in the final against England and it took it to extra time scored in the penalty shootout and he was at the center of the celebrations no one will ever forget his the way he mocked the English it's coming home or it's coming Rome he chanted yeah he was he was yeah somebody that also of course
00:02:42
Speaker
he wasn't on your side you didn't like him very much he was kind of a you know a bit of a you know a bastard of a player in some ways that he was our bastard if he was if you were Juventus or Italy fan um but but at the end of the day it's been an amazing career for Vinicci. It absolutely has um you look at
00:03:03
Speaker
For me, I look at Antonio Conte. I remember when Bonucci came up through the ranks and together with Andrea Ranocchia, they were deemed to be the new, they were supposed to be the new players that,
00:03:30
Speaker
the new defenders of the new generation to take the step on from the previous Nesta's and Maldini's and Canavaro's. And for me, him at Bari and under Antonio Conto with Ranocchio next time, those two were like the predestinati. And Ranocchio was rated higher. Yeah, he was supposed to have been the better one of the two. He was supposed to have been the better one as it turns out. I mean, his career is, for me,
00:03:59
Speaker
completely.
Bonucci's Role and Skills
00:04:00
Speaker
I can't think of talk about Bonucci without talking about Conte, Barzagli and Kilini because I think the fact that he came to Juve under Antonio Conte and Antonio Conte fixed that system for him or for Juve with him kind of having Barzagli and Kilini behind him kind of doing the defensive works and he could sit there like almost like a quarterback in the NFL and go and pick out these passes.
00:04:28
Speaker
time and time and time again, which he did. Um, you know, brilliant in the air, uh, scored quite a few goals for a defender, good par, fantastic passer of the ball. But I, uh, yeah, no, no, for me, it's, it's, it's, um, you know, his career goes hand in hand. It's tandem with, uh, Balsali and Quilini.
00:04:49
Speaker
But we have, I kind of agree with what you said as well. I wonder if he's ever been better than that summer with Killini. They were the two best central defenders in the world that summer. They were unbelievable.
Reflections on Bonucci's Career End and Achievements
00:05:03
Speaker
At a time when both seemed like they were on the decline, but then they just had an Indian summer that summer and just were just incredible. Just just faultless in that in that sort of an amazing and he
00:05:15
Speaker
Yeah, they were both of them, but very mentally strong players and probably the last of the kind of
00:05:26
Speaker
Well, I guess Keilini was more old school than Bonucci. Bonucci was a ball player as well, but he did have that tough side to him as well, which you need to win tournaments. Unfortunate how his career ended. He really wanted to go to these Euros, Bonucci. He really wanted to. He felt like he had a chance, but then obviously with Mancini,
00:05:48
Speaker
with Roberto Mancini leaving, that was the, leaving Italy, that was the end of it and probably a good thing because if you've seen him Benucci play this season, yeah, it's clear that he didn't want to accept it for a while, Benucci and that led to kind of a bit of a sour end into his time but that happens with a lot of great players, you know, they don't, they can't accept that they're, you know,
00:06:11
Speaker
age catches up with us all. You can't go on forever. And some of the greats that can't see it coming, in the mind, they're still the player that they thought they were at their peak. And he probably went on a little bit too long, Benucci. But it won't change what he'd done during his career.
00:06:31
Speaker
OK, so another another let's remember he has nine. He has a nine school. He has nine school. I mean, because he was part of the inter team of five or six that won the school. And then, of course, he's got eight with with you. So he's he's he will have won nine Serie A titles. And then, of course, for Coppa Italia's five Super Coppa, two Champions League. So he is one of the most decorated players, Italian players in all of Italian football history.
00:07:01
Speaker
He certainly is, he certainly is.