Juventus captain Gianluigi Buffon believes that Manchester City‘s failure to sign Paul Pogba in the summer transfer window, despite the big-money offers for his signature, is ‘important for football’.
Reports suggested that the Citizens had offered £71m for the France international, while Chelsea and Barcelona were among the other clubs interested in clinching a deal.
Juve were rumoured to have warned potential suitors off with a figure as high as £109m, which seemed to do the trick; with the midfielder staying put in Turin for the new season.
And Buffon is confident that his club made the correct decision in their stance on the 22-year-old.
“Manchester City are one of three or four clubs in the world that can pay what I call crazy money, so it’s only natural they were interested in him,” the goalkeeper told the Daily Mirror.
“He made his intentions to stay with Juventus very clear though, and that was important for us, but also important for football.
“It showed that money doesn’t always win.”
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At the beginning of the week, it was claimed that City would open talks with Juve over the availability of Pogba on Tuesday night – taking advantage of the Italian giants’ visit to the Etihad Stadium for their opening Champions League fixture.
The Citizens therefore may not have given up on luring him back to Manchester just yet.