Felipe Melo reflected candidly on his turbulent Juventus spell in a recent interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport. The former midfielder opened up about his mistakes, clashes and enduring connection to the club.
Melo’s memories of Juventus are intense, conflicted and ultimately affectionate. “At Juve I played almost a hundred games, but I was young and immature. I made dozens of mistakes and I paid for all of them,” he admits. His time in Turin was marked by flashes of quality, but also by a temperament that often pushed him over the edge.
He recalls one episode in particular as emblematic of that period. “Once I lost the ball, the crowd whistled and I told everyone to get lost,” he says. “When I went home my wife told me off. I was a kid: I argued with everyone, answered back, I was surly and nervous.” His combative character led to several bust-ups, including the famous clash with Giorgio Chiellini. “I even argued with Chiellini, as everyone knows. Now we’ve made peace: we greeted each other warmly at the Club World Cup. Infantino was there too. He is brilliant: he is changing football and I respect him.”
Melo’s arrival at Juventus was itself the result of a decisive twist in the market. “Mourinho wanted me at Inter back in 2009,” he reveals. “But Corvino told me ‘either you go to Turin or you go to Turin. You have no other choices’. Juventus paid the 25 million clause and added Marchionni into the deal. Florence did not take it well, there was a lot of criticism. My first daughter was born there, I loved the Franchi and the city.” The move to Turin, however, placed him at the centre of one of Italy’s most demanding environments, where every mistake was amplified.
