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Cristiano Ronaldo’s potential arrival at Juventus overshadowed Emre Can’s first news conference at the Bianconeri as he was immediately asked about the five-time Ballon d’Or winner.
Portugal captain Ronaldo has spent nine years at Madrid, but speculation over a potential €100 million transfer caused Juve’s share price to soar last week.
“For every player, it would be great to play with Ronaldo, but I don’t know if there has been contact with club and player,” Can said. “If he did arrive, that would be great.”
Following that question the Juventus press officer stepped in.
“Today we are here to speak about Emre Can and just Can so if we can please keep the questions to him,” she said.
Ronaldo has won the Champions League five times and it is the pursuit of that trophy for the first time since 1996 which is fuelling Juve’s quest to sign him.
Can, 24, says he also wants to win the Champions League, having missed out to Ronaldo’s Real Madrid in May, but he says Juve’s priority is to win an eighth straight Serie A title.
“The first [aim] is to win Serie A first of all and then the Champions League comes next,” he said. “I know they didn’t win it for 23 years and of course our aim is to win the Champions League and I am here to help the team because we all want to win it, but our main focus first is Serie A.”
#EC23 🏳🏴 #EmreCanDay pic.twitter.com/JKtjlgeHBo
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) July 9, 2018
Can nevertheless confirmed he had turned down many of Europe’s top clubs, without naming names, to join Juve because he is convinced they have the most attractive project and ambitions.
“I know the mentality of the club, that they just expect and just want to win titles and that is my mentality too — I came here to win titles,” he said. “It’s true, I had a lot of offers from very good teams but I decided Juventus because I think the project is very big and they have very big aims and I want to be a part of the big project here.”
Can, who admitted he is looking to emulate his idol Zinedine Zidane — who was part of that 1996 Champions League-winning team — in Turin, also dismissed claims there had been any acrimony about his departure from Anfield.
“I had problems with [Liverpool manager Jurgen] Klopp? I hear this now for the first time,” he said. “I had a very good relationship with Klopp and in the end he wished me all the best here — I never had any problems with Klopp.”
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