Matuidi dreaming of Champions League glory at Juventus

Blaise Matuidi is dreaming of winning the Champions League for the first time in his career after joining Juventus in a €20million deal.

The France international won four Ligue 1 titles and a trio of Coupe de France medals during a trophy-laden spell at Paris Saint-Germain.

But the Champions League has eluded the midfielder, just as it has done Juventus, who last won the competition in 1996 and have been beaten in the final in two of the last three seasons.

Matuidi’s transfer fee could climb to €30.5m if certain appearance-related bonuses are met and the 30-year-old is already targeting European glory at Serie A champions Juve.

“Everybody dreams of winning the Champions League but it’s not that easy, it requires a lot of work and a lot of effort, but we are one of the clubs that dreams to win,” Matuidi said at his unveiling on Tuesday.

“However, Serie A is also very important, and it will help us to perform better in Europe. Serie A is a competitive and great league with a high tactical level. It will be up to me to adapt to it and to improve as a player.

“This is obviously a very ambitious club who always want to win. This complements me as a person as I’m also very ambitious and I want to win all of the time.”

#MatuidiDay  pic.twitter.com/YuPmxAtCur

— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) August 22, 2017

Matuidi has opted to wear the number 14 shirt, following in the footsteps of former Juve midfielder Didier Deschamps, who coaches Matuidi with the Les Bleus, while he is also inspired by Juve’s former French stars Zinedine Zidane and Michel Platini.

“Even though I’d already decided to come here, I spoke to Didier Deschamps,” Matuidi said. “He gave me very positive and good information about Juventus.

“I think that it was very important for me to change clubs in order to evolve and I also have the World Cup to think about.

“The number 14 that I’ve chosen is one that has been following me for years, so I have to say that it was a coincidence that I picked the same number that Deschamps wore at Juve.

“If you consider that all the Frenchmen who have played for Juventus are all top players, that makes me especially happy. They all achieved a great deal here and it makes me feel positive about the future.”