Eager to join FC Barcelona this winter, Nicolas Tagliafico, also announced at Olympique de Marseille, has been retained by Ajax. A decision that he does not really digest.
The transfer window can do damage, for clubs as well as for players. We think in particular of those who wish to leave and are retained by their clubs without really understanding why. Nicolas Tagliafico (29) testified to this on Friday in the columns of AS. The left side, at Ajax since January 2018, wanted a change of scenery. First announced in the sights of Olympique de Marseille – Jorge Sampaoli even admitted having personally called him before Pablo Longoria completed the Sead Kolasinac operation – and from Naples, it was finally with FC Barcelona that the international albiceleste discussed the most seriously.
Only the Dutch, with whom he is under contract until June 2023, refused to open the door to him. A choice he still does not understand. “I’ve been at the club for four years and played with my skull broken, with goggles, sometimes 70 per cent… I would say my ankle was swollen and if they asked me if I could play I would say Yes. Even if I’m not 100%, if I was needed, I never said no. I gave everything. Every time they called on me, I responded. Off the pitch too, I had good opportunities and I always put the interests of the club first. And this winter, when an opportunity impossible to refuse is offered to me, I am blocked, I am disappointed.he dropped before continuing.
Against bad luck, good heart…
“I understand that the situation is not easy, that we are in the middle of the season, but, in the end, this choice is detrimental to both of us, to me because I cannot have what I want and to the club because it holds me back. The club understood me, it has its reasons, but it’s a shame. I feel that it was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up, it was a unique chance to be able to go to a club like Barça, it was a dream and, in the end, the club did not help me . He didn’t even make it clear by not telling me from the start that he wouldn’t help me. I’m disappointed because I feel that being too professional has hurt me. Train well, never make problems, behave well every day, that’s my mentality and my way of being, I’ll always be like that, but I see that it often penalizes you. You wonder if it’s not better to think only of your interests”he confided.
Completely transparent, the defender, who has just returned from an international break with Argentina, has argued his position this winter. “I feel that I have arrived at a moment where I know everything, the partners, the coach, the situation. I said to myself: “even if it means fighting for a place, I might as well do it somewhere else where the competition will be healthier. Here, I already know how it’s going to be.” That’s why I thought it was the perfect time to leave but the club wouldn’t let me. Now it’s done, the deal is over and everyone here knows what to expect if I’m called on the pitch by the end of the season.”, he concluded. Cruel disappointment.
