Juventus forward Paulo Dybala described his battle with the Coronavirus and the world’s top two players, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, in an interview with the Argentinian national team AFA via Calciomercato.com today.
“I had a bad cough, I felt tired and when I slept, I felt cold. At first, I didn’t think about what it could be but it had happened to two other teammates and the last one was me. We had headaches, but it was advisable not to take anything. The club gave us vitamins and over time we felt better.”
The 26-year-old Argentine forward then further spoke about the ongoing Coronavirus emergency.
“It’s psychological. You were scared at first, but it’s okay now. These days we haven’t had any symptoms. I used to get tired faster. I wanted to train, but after five minutes I was already out of breath. And that’s when we realized that something wasn’t right, then the tests revealed that we were positive for the virus. A lot of people die here every day, things are very bad. You can’t handle cases anymore, that’s why many countries have sent their doctors. It’s not a lie, you have to be careful. People have to stay at home.”
Dybala then discussed a quote he made about Argentina teammate Lionel Messi, ‘Lionel is hard to play with’.
“My quote about him? I should have said it differently, I never try to criticize my teammates. I even talked to him about it. Tactically, we’re very similar. Even with Scaloni, we work so as not to step on the field. I would have liked to give more to Argentina and get better results both in the group and on a personal level. I played very little in the World Cup and Copa America. But I’ve always respected the decisions of the coach, Seleccion is prestigious.”
He then touched on Juventus teammate Cristiano Ronaldo.
“He’s a great and very sociable person, very quiet inside and outside the locker room. He gives the impression of being a loudmouth, but he has nothing to do with that. I even told him once that we hated him for it in Argentina and he started laughing.”
Finally, Dybala spoke about the wage cut that the Juventus players agreed with the club last week.
“Chiellini spoke to the president, then to the group. We talked about it, there were different opinions, there were players who lacked one or two games to reach a clause, but this was the best thing to do.”
Dybala, who was close to a move to the Premier League last season, has secured himself in coach Maurizio Sarri’s starting lineup after impressing alongside Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuain. The player, who is contracted to the Bianconeri until 2022, has made 34 appearances across all competitions so far this season, for a total of 2077 minutes. In that time, he has scored 13 goals and provided 12 assists.