Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma said he was hurt by news that his national team players would have demanded a bonus if they qualified for this year’s World Cup.
Italy, four-time world champions, missed out on their place in the finals of the tournament for the third time in a row, after being defeated 4-1 on penalties by Bosnia and Herzegovina in the play-offs.
“As captain, I never asked for a single euro from the Italian team,” Donnarumma told Sky Sports Italia.
“What the national team does, as always, in all competitions, is give a gift to the players who qualify for the tournament. That was it, but no one asked the federation for anything; our reward was to go to the World Cup.”
Italy’s failure to qualify for the tournament that takes place from June 11 to July 19 in North America led to the resignation of the president of the Italian Football Federation, Gabriele Gravina, amid political pressure, and the departure of former goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon as head of the Italian delegation.
Coach Gennaro Gattuso also left his position.
“We have to start over from scratch, move forward,” said Donnarumma, 27 years old.
“We have to recover; there are four years until the next World Cup and, in the meantime, we have big competitions like the European Championship and the Nations League. Before we think about the World Cup, we need to focus on these big tournaments that we have ahead of us and we need to start again with full force now”, said the goalkeeper.
