The Nerazzurri goalkeeper Juan Mussointerviewed by the Argentine newspaper Olealso recounted some of the hardest moments of his career, such as when he lost his starting place in Atalanta or above all when he was excluded from the World Cup: “This season I started the championship and the Europa League as a starter. We were doing very well. From the end of August to November I was the starting goalkeeper. I played almost all the matches, but every now and then Marco Carnesecchi, a great Italian goalkeeper, came on. I was in the starting lineup and the team was doing very well. But at a certain point the coach decided to give continuity to Marco too, because he wanted to see what he was there for. Marco responded very well, many times, and I had to sit and wait without being able to do much. The coach knew I wanted to play. I felt like I was a starter and that I played well. And I told him. Afterwards, I accepted his decision…. I had to work hard on this, I made myself available to the team, I trained harder than ever because in football you never know how things can end. Sometimes, what seems unfair ends up working. Marco Carnesecchi is a 22 year old boy, I saw him as a younger brother. I was happy for him. Our good relationship made everything easier.”
On the exclusion from the World Cup with Argentina?
“It was hard because I felt I was an important part of Scaloni’s process. Milestones like the Copa America had been achieved. And I was in a great moment. With Atalanta we were first in the league, that year we started to win 10 games in a row, six months before the World Cup. But then I hurt my face after a blow and I had surgery. I was out for a month and a half, two months before Qatar. I never thought about it to not go, until, well…. After the injury, I didn’t play again until two games before the World Cup I think that also made things quite difficult for me.”
