Former Inter goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca has criticized modern players including recently-departed Nerazzurri striker Romelu Lukaku for what he sees as leaving clubs for improved financial offers.
Speaking to Italian news outlet Gazzetta.it, the 54-year-old gave his views on the moves of Lionel Messi and Gianluigi Donnarumma to Paris Saint-Germain, and of Lukaku to Chelsea.
Pagliuca, who made 234 appearances in all competitions across five seasons with the Nerazzurri and won the Scuetto during the 1990-91 season, contrasted playing for money and playing for the shirt.
The former goalkeeper believes that playing for a feeling of wanting to represent a club should be more important than playing at the club with the resources to make the highest financial offer.
He does not believe that the individual players he singles out for criticism are necessarily at fault for their choices, but rather sees big-money moves such as these as a symptom of the influence of finances in the modern time, which he contrasts with his own playing days.
“It is much more difficult now than it was in my time,” Pagliuca stated, elaborating that “it is enough just to see what is happening this summer: Messi, Lukaku , Donnarumma, players who look first and foremost to the god of money, the most important thing today.”
According to Pagliuca, “There are much more important interests than attachment to the shirt. And this is a bad thing.”