Premier League giants Chelsea F.C. were heavily linked with a transfer to sign Gonzalo Higuain during the summer window when the former Real Madrid forward was lined up for exit at Juventus.
However, Chelsea missed out on signing the Argentine, who instead of moving to England opted to join Juve’s fierce rivals AC Milan on a season-long loan.
Now, Higuain in an exclusive interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, the forward has now revealed the reason why he left Juventus and joined Milan instead of Chelsea:
“On the day of the Coppa Italia final, I understood that something had changed.
“A few weeks later they signed Ronaldo. I didn’t choose to leave Juventus, they send me away. I gave everything to Juventus, I won many titles but when they signed Ronaldo they told me that I couldn’t remain at the club and that I had to find a new team.
“I had a good time at Juve. The fans loved me but everybody is saying that I was kicked out, I didn’t want to leave but AC Milan convinced me and there is a lot of love for me here.”
The striker, who netted 55 goals in 105 appearances for Juve, also spoke about why he decided to choose AC Milan over Premier League side Chelsea.
“There was a fundamental difference: everyone here (AC Milan) wanted me, from the club to the coach. Only the coach wanted me at Chelsea.”
Being only the coach who wanted him at Chelsea, Higuain was of course referring to Maurizio Sarri interest in his, who he previously worked with at Napoli.
Since swapping Juve, Higuain has netted four goals in five Seria A matches, which is more than Chelsea duo Olivier Giroud and Alvaro Morata who has just two Premier League goals between them so far this season.
Higuain will be handed another chances to add on his goalscoring tally this weekend when a new-look Milan face arch-rivals Inter Milan at the San Siro on Sunday night.
Although Gennaro Gattuso’s side are seven places and four points off Inter – 10th on the Serie A table, but the club is enjoying a three game winning streak in all outings, and are unbeaten in eight matches since their opening day 3-2 defeat at the hands of Napoli.