Gianluigi Donnarumma, captain of the Italian national team, spoke about the rumours that he and the rest of players had asked the Italian Football Federation about a monetary bonus before their World Cup qualification match against Bosnia, the one that they eventually lost on penalties, being deprived from playing World Cup 2026 in the summer.
"The comments hurt me deeply. As captain, I never asked the national team for a single euro", he explained in tears to Sky Sports (via AS).
The reports said that the players had asked for a 300,000 euro bonus, to divide between the 28 players, as a compensation for qualifying for the World Cup, even before playing the play-off match they ended up losing. This caused quite an outrage in Italy, especially after the defeat, with trust in the football federation perhaps at an all-time low after failing to qualify for the World Cup for the third time in a row (meaning it's been 20 years since their last participation, when they took the victory in 2006).
"What the federation does, in every competition, is give a gift to the players who qualify for a tournament. That's all; none of us asked for anything", explained the Manchester City goalkeeper "Our gift would have been going to the World Cup. Nobody asked for any bonus; it was simply a gift the national team gives if we qualify or win certain trophies."