Leonardo Bonucci Reflects on Near Move to Manchester City

Leonardo Bonucci has revealed just how close he came to swapping Juventus for Manchester City, admitting he was “tempted” by Pep Guardiola after being “courted for many weeks” – but in the end, he could not bring himself to walk away from Turin.

The former defender, who hung up his boots in 2024 and is now on Roberto Mancini’s Italy staff preparing for Nations League games against Belgium, Turkiye and France, looked back on the moment his career almost took a dramatic turn.

Guardiola’s charm offensive

Guardiola’s admiration for Bonucci was never a secret. The Catalan saw in him a centre-back with the passing range of a playmaker, a defender who could launch attacks as comfortably as he could halt them.

“The 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons allowed me to achieve incredible heights in my career,” Bonucci told World Soccer Agency, via Sport Mediaset. “I played in the Champions League Final against Barcelona in 2015, then a year later was at the European Championship, losing to Germany on penalties after I scored past Manuel Neuer. It was the start of my career truly taking off.”

Those peak years came in black and white. Bonucci joined Juventus in 2010 and, aside from a one-season detour to Milan in 2017/18, stayed until 2023. At one point in that spell, though, he had a serious decision to make.

“For my style of football, the coach who is best suited and most appreciates playing out from the back is Guardiola. So he courted me for many weeks, and let me tell you, being courted by Guardiola is not like any other experience.

“You really do start to wobble, and it was tough taking place during the Euros, where I had to be concentrated, but even during the tournament there were some discussions.”

The Premier League beckoned. The project was glamorous, the coach irresistible. Yet the pull of Juventus, and of home, bit back hard.

Torn between dreams

Bonucci describes a daily tug-of-war inside his own head.

“As far as I was concerned, the idea of leaving Juventus made my heart ache. Some days I’d say to myself, oh wonderful, the Premier League and Guardiola, but then the day after I remembered that I had always dreamed of Juventus.”

It was not just football complicating the picture. Off the pitch, his family were facing a far more serious battle. His son Matteo had been diagnosed with a serious illness at the age of two, a reality that weighed heavily on any decision to uproot.

“After the Euros, I spoke to Juve. Matteo’s illness and the fact I didn’t feel 100 per cent about leaving Juve, especially as the club told me that I would not be sold even if an incredible offer came in, made it a normal decision to stay.

“Working with Guardiola would’ve allowed me to have even greater experience, technically and tactically.”

Juventus resisted huge offers, Bonucci stayed, and the famous BBC back line – Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini, Andrea Barzagli – continued to anchor the club’s ambitions in Europe.

The move that did happen

Ironically, when Bonucci finally did leave Juventus, it was not for Guardiola or Manchester City, but for Milan in 2017. That transfer, he admits, came from a very different place, sparked by a notorious clash with coach Max Allegri.

“I had lost my focus with what happened in 2017. I was about to become a pillar of Juventus, that was the path I was meant to be on.”

He lasted only a year at San Siro before returning to Turin once Allegri had stepped away, rejoining the club where he had always imagined building his legacy.

Guardiola never got his ball-playing Italian general. Bonucci never tested himself in the Premier League. Instead, he chose the weight of the shirt he had always dreamed of wearing – and lived out that dream to its end.