Palladino: I Thought Azzurri Call-Up Was A Joke
Juventus ace Raffaelle Palladino was delighted upon hearing of his Azzurri call-up - at least when he began to believe it...
Raffaelle Palladino thought that he was on the end of a prank upon hearing of Roberto Donadoni's decision to call him up to the full international side.
"Last year I was just a U-21 player, so when someone told me about the call, I thought they were joking," he told the media.
"When I found out that it was genuine, I was insanely happy."
With Alessandro Del Piero being left out, the 'Don' clearly thought that it was time for new blood, so in came Palladino.
The winger, who previously served Salernitana and Livorno, recently turned 23, bringing his fruitful spell with the primavera to an end.
In that time he picked up 15 caps and scored four goals while, towards the end of his tenure, he was also to break through to the then-Serie B Juventus first team.
He believes that much of the current success is down to new coach Claudio Ranieri, who is building on Didier Deschamps' previous accomplishments.
"We're a young squad here at Juve, but our excellent coach Claudio Ranieri teaches us a lot," he said.
"We won the Serie B title last year, which gave us strength, confidence and unity. But we'll continue to go forward with humility."
Ranieri, of course, took Juve to Parma at the weekend, where the Old Lady had to claw back from 2-0 down to rescue a point.
Palladino refused to become downhearted, saying, "We may have dropped two points at Parma, but we're still in touch with the leaders.
"Let's take it one game at a time. It's all we can do."
goal.com