JAKARTA - Giorgio Chiellini's contribution to the Italian national team seems to end soon with the decision to retire. The reason is, the player hinted that he had played his last match during a friendly against Turkey on Wednesday, March 30 in the morning of Indonesian Western Time (WIB).
In the match against Turkey at the Konya Buyuksehir Stadium, Italy won 3-2. In this match, Chiellini appeared as a starter. However, in the 76th minute he was replaced by Alessandro Bastoni. Although he did not play until the end, this made Chiellini's 116th appearance in the Gli Azzurri shirt.
Reporting from Football Italia, Wednesday, when he was substituted, the Juventus defender took off the captain's armband, kissed it, and put it on the arm of Gianluigi Donnarumma. He then gave a warm hug to coach Roberto Mancini as he left the field.
Chiellini provided more hints on his personal Instagram that his time with the Nazionale would end earlier than expected, now that they are confirmed not to be at the World Cup.
Chiellini also uploaded a photo of being together with the team on the field. The description he wrote also seemed to lead to a sentence that refers to separation.
"We were hoping to play a different game tonight and we can't deny that," the center-back wrote, referring to the World Cup play-off final.
"Last Thursday was a sad page in our career history books, we will always have a void within us. But in sport, as in life, we must have the strength to always bounce back," he said.
Chiellini's farewell gesture is again seen in the sentence when he refers to the team with the words these players, not with us in the last stanza of his statement.
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“These players will write an even more important page in the history of Italian football, giving us all the same emotions we were lucky enough to experience last summer. Always and forever, FORZA AZZURRI," concluded Chiellini.
Regardless of whether or not the friendly match was Chiellini's last moment before deciding to hang up his boots, his 116 appearances for Italy also made a good record for him.
Chiellini is now fifth on the list of all-time Italian players with the most appearances. He collected the same number of matches as Andrea Pirlo. While other famous names such as Daniele De Rossi, Paolo Maldini, Fabio Cannavaro and Gianluigi Buffon collected more caps.
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