Patrice Evra claims time at Manchester United was ‘like a holiday’ compared to spell at Juventus
Patrice Evra has claimed that his time at Manchester United “felt like a holiday” compared to his stint at Juventus.
Evra played nearly 400 times for United during an eight-year spell before moving to Italy in 2014.
And the French left-back, who retired from football this summer after a brief stint at West Ham United, has admitted that he found his two seasons in Turin tough.
“Yes,” he said on Sky Sports when asked whether there was a different mentality in Italy.
“I won a lot of trophies with Manchester United, and I’m not scared to say that I felt like I was on holiday compared to Juventus.
“The way they worked, the training, even like two days before the game in the hotel... you train on the day of the game.”
Evra won five English Premier League titles while at Old Trafford, as well as a Champions League crown in 2008.
While that success continued after making the move, with Juventus winning a domestic double in both of the full seasons Evra played for the club, the Frenchman found it a very different environment.
And despite describing the demanding training schedule as a “shock”, Evra is glad he made the move to Serie A
“Mentally, that’s why I’m so proud of playing for Juventus. It was one of the most difficult challenges in my life and you had one day off per month.
“They control everything, they force you to eat at the club and I learned a lot at the club, also tactically.
“Juventus were one of my biggest challenges and I’m so proud I spent two years and a half with them.
“I didn’t enjoy [the lifestyle] because I like to control myself, but it’s really important for some young players.
“Juventus have this DNA of working hard. I even saw some players vomit and they still finished the training sessions.
“I remember every game they wanted me to run 12km. Sometimes I felt it made no sense because we always had the ball.
“Some games I was running 9km, some 10km, and two days later at training, you have to complete your 12km so they made me run another 2km, 3km.
“The training is harder than the game. Some people say it’s easier to play in Italy but they wouldn’t even be able to train. It was such a shock for me.”
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