Bonucci on Guardiola's Pursuit and Staying at Juventus
Leonardo Bonucci has revealed just how close he came to joining Pep Guardiola at Manchester City – and why, in the end, he simply could not walk away from Juventus.
The former Italy defender, who retired in 2024 and now works on Roberto Mancini’s Azzurri staff ahead of Nations League games against Belgium, Turkiye and France, admitted the lure of Guardiola and the Premier League shook him more than he expected.
The peak years – and the first call from Guardiola
Bonucci pinpoints the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons as the moment his career exploded onto the elite stage.
“The 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons allowed me to achieve incredible heights in my career,” he told World Soccer Agency, via Sport Mediaset. He had just marshalled Juventus to the 2015 Champions League final against Barcelona and then, a year later, buried a penalty past Manuel Neuer at Euro 2016 before Italy fell to Germany in the shootout.
“It was the start of my career truly taking off,” he said.
That surge in status did not go unnoticed in Manchester. Guardiola, then shaping his City project, had long admired the centre-back who could hit 40-yard passes like a regista. For a coach obsessed with building from the back, Bonucci was close to the ideal piece.
“For my style of football, the coach who is best suited and most appreciates playing out from the back is Guardiola,” Bonucci admitted. “So he courted me for many weeks, and let me tell you, being courted by Guardiola is not like any other experience.”
The pressure finally told. Even a defender as seasoned as Bonucci felt the ground move beneath him.
“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.”
Torn between City and the Old Lady
By then, Bonucci had been a Juventus player since 2010. He had grown alongside Giorgio Chiellini and Andrea Barzagli, forming one of the most imposing defensive units of the modern era. Turin was not just an address. It was a football identity.
The offer from City, though, was both lucrative and prestigious. A chance to test himself in the Premier League under a manager who seemed to have designed his system with Bonucci in mind.
Some days, he almost said yes.
“As far as I was concerned, the idea of leaving Juventus made my heart ache,” he confessed. “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.”
The club’s stance hardened his resolve. Juventus made it clear he was not for sale, even if a “massive” bid landed on their desk. The message from Turin matched the feeling in his chest.
Family, illness and a clear decision
Off the pitch, life delivered a brutal reminder of what truly matters. Bonucci’s young son Matteo was diagnosed with a serious illness at just two years old. Any transfer suddenly became more than a tactical move or a new league; it was a question of family stability.
“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.”
The romantic pull of Guardiola’s football did not disappear. Bonucci knows exactly what he might have gained on the training pitches of Manchester.
“Working with Guardiola would’ve allowed me to have even greater experience, technically and tactically,” he said.
But in that moment, between his son’s condition, his emotional bond with Juventus and the club’s refusal to cash in, the choice felt obvious. He stayed. The BBC – Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini – remained intact.
The Milan detour and a path almost lost
Ironically, Bonucci did eventually walk away from Juventus, just not for England. In 2017, after a notorious bust-up with coach Max Allegri, he joined Milan. The move stunned Serie A and seemed to redraw the map of Italian defending.
This time it was not Guardiola’s charm or a foreign adventure. It was a fracture at home.
“I had lost my focus with what happened in 2017,” Bonucci reflected. “I was about to become a pillar of Juventus, that was the path I was meant to be on.”
The Milan chapter lasted only a year. When Allegri’s situation changed, Bonucci returned to Turin, trying to restore the trajectory he felt he had briefly abandoned.
He never did play a single minute for Guardiola. No Etihad nights, no sky-blue shirt, no Premier League title race. Instead, he lifted Euro 2020 at Wembley in Azzurri blue and spent more than a decade defining an era at Juventus.
Looking back now from the bench, as part of Mancini’s staff, Bonucci can see the fork in the road clearly. One path led to Guardiola and England. The other to the club he had always dreamed of, and to a family that needed him close.
He chose Juventus. And he will live, and coach, with everything that decision brought.
