Tottenham star admits he felt ’embarrassed’ and ‘worthless’ at his former club
Dejan Kulusevski has opened up on his mental struggles during his time at Juventus, admitting that he found it quite difficult to cope with not getting any game time and with all the criticism that he was receiving.
Kulusevski seemed destined for greatness from quite a young age and although he is now fulfilling his potential in the Premier League, the route to the top was not a straightforward one for the winger.
The Swede hit the limelight when he won the Serie A Young Player of the Season award after reaching double figures for goals and assists on loan at Atalanta in 2019-20 and he admitted that he felt like he had the world at his feet at that point.
The Tottenham man told The Players’ Tribune: “This was in early 2019, and the next three months I played unbelievable football. If we had lost, I’d go back to my room and dribble around with a small ball for an hour, put on J. Cole on max volume and do a hundred pushups.
“We won the U19 Campionato Primavera 1 for the first time in 21 years. Then I went on loan to Parma, I was named the Serie A Young Player of the Season, and I was signed by Juventus.”
Kuluseveski was certainly excited to make the move to Turin, saying about the switch: “My period at Juventus was a chance to learn from legends.”
Kulusevski opens up on Juventus struggles
However, things did not go well for the 23-year-old at the Allianz Stadium as he often had to watch on from the sidelines, particularly during his final six months at the club where he struggled to get a look in under Massimiliano Allegri.
The Spurs star revealed that he was overcome with feelings of shame and disappointment during that phase.
He said “I had barely started a game at Juventus for six months. You feel terrible because you’ve given your life to play this game, training as hard as you can, and you end up watching players play in your position that are not even wingers.
“Honestly, I felt embarrassed, even worthless. Some people began saying that I wasn’t good enough, that I was too slow. And it affects you, 100%. It’s normal, it’s human. When you begin to believe them, that’s the devil right there.
“I know the feeling is that I failed at Juventus. Well, I think that’s a strange thing to say when I won two trophies, played in both finals, and decided one of them with a goal and an assist against my former team Atalanta. But in those last six months, it is true that I had a difficult time. When I came to Spurs, I didn’t know how to get out of this negative spiral.”
Spurs Web Opinion
The paradox of extremely high achievers, which includes all elite sportsmen, is that the feeling of inadequacy which drives them to keep improving and reach the highest level, also prevents them from being content or happy with what they have achieved.
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