Certain loves do not end, they make immense turns and then return … Antonello Venditti wrote years ago in “Friends Mai”. But there are some – and in football it happens more and more often – that they don’t even be born. Especially when you put money in the middle.

Among these, the story between Gianluigi Donnarumma and the Paris Saint-Germain, not of love certainly, perhaps of a mutual interest, destined to close in the worst way, without applause, without honors and with a bitter farewell entrusted to a post on Instagram by the player and an unjustified silence, unjustifiable and embarrassing by the Parisian, will also be inserted.

Not an official word

Not an official word, not a tribute to the goalkeeper who, for better or for worse, defended the door of the Parisian club in some of his most important nights, including European ones. Many argue that some parades of Donnarumma were the real discriminant in the first success of the PSG in the Champions League. Maybe excessive, but not very far from reality. We will return later.

Arriving from Milan with a contract expired and zero parameter in the summer of 2021, Donnarumma had signed a five -year by immediately fueling the general curiosity because of a very hard coexistence with Keylor Navas, goalkeeper of the Costa Rica who arrived two years earlier and capable of carving out a space of great credibility and affection at the fans. That at least initially they had not hidden their sympathies for the owner, relegating Donnarumma to the role of very expensive backup.

So Donnarumma built his path

The first season saw Gigio, back from the victory to the European and Top 11 in England, get to the weight of gold but wait for their occasions without shining: indeed, those who followed closely the club’s events had said that the relationship between Navas and Donnarumma was good, constructive. Extremely professional.

The year ends with the usual Ligue 1: but without other trophies, the Cup of France (in the round of 16) and the Champions League (always in the round of 16, double defeated by Real). Donnarumma misses something but in fact it builds his path to become the owner: 24 appearances, 17 in the championship, 2 in the cup and as many in the Champions League.

The following year Navas remains in a team clearly relegated to the role of 12th and then moved on to Nottingham in January with only two appearances in the national cup in five months. From that moment Donnarumma has become an unwatty owner: in all there are three other titles of Ligue 1, two French cups, three national supercoppes and obviously the Champions League which closes an extraordinary period: 161 overall appearances, 156 goals conceded.

“Too many goals conceded”

Too many according to Luis Enrique who does not forgive some irresistible goals taken during a triumphant season in Donnarumma, a poor predisposition to the reconstruction of the game at speed. Although the greater weight seems to be the economic one of a club that should renegotiate a 7.5 million euro contract per season expiring in June.

The goalkeeper agent (Enzo Raiola) speaks of “illegitimate and irresponsible behavior in front of a professional who had already proposed a renewal for the decline”. The company forwards Luis Enrique who is experimented with compliments (“excellent goalkeeper and splendid person”) liquidating the national goalkeeper as an unnecessary luxury: “I need anything else” says the technician who chooses not to convene the owner for the European Super Cup against Tottenham relying on a new face: Chevalier, paid 40 million and presented as the “modern” goalkeeper.

“Never from home in Paris”

The impression is that Donnarumma pays dearly to have never really been “home” in Paris. The goalkeeper immediately had the deal with a wary environment, at times hostile, and an audience that reproached him with technical shortcomings in the game with his feet and some uncertainties under pressure. The PSG, which in recent years has launched a wage containment policy after the follies of the Neymar-Massi-Mbappé era, offered a renewal to lower figures compared to the current engagement. That Donnarumma would also have accepted, just to stay.

Separated at home, but great performance

The reality is that Gigio lived four seasons from separated at home. The dualism with Keylor Navas, the criticisms of the French press, the mutuals of a part of the fans, and finally the arrival of Luis Enrique, who broke the delay with a decision that knows more than simple technical choice. The signals were all there: the purchase of a French goalkeeper, young, skilled in the game with his feet, almost a manifesto of what Donnarumma has never been for his detractors.

Yet, as mentioned, in Paris, Donnarumma has saved. And how. On Champions League nights he often kept a team alive that, otherwise, would have come out much earlier. The European triumph will certainly not be his only his but it is evident to anyone who would never have arrived without him. And then the point becomes another: how much does it matter to be loyal to a club that thinks like a multinational football, with more than sporting business logic?

The greeting of the Italian was composed, elegant, full of gratitude. Many former companions paid homage to him publicly: from Mbappé to Dembélé, from Vitinha to Hakimi. Even Captain Marquinhos. Not so the club. A silence that weighs like a sentence. Donnarumma had strong but always measured words. Disappointed, yes. But not rancorous. This is perhaps the most distinctive trait of a boy who, despite having lived a thousand football lives at 25 years of age, maintains a rare balance in today’s football. And now? The market is running out and the PSG wants 40 million. Congratulations.

Hoping that it does not end in Arabia

It will be difficult to collect 25, which is what Guardiola’s City offered immediately. At the window, Real Madrid, an orphan of Courtois shortly, which remains a concrete option despite the tesca relationships with the PSG after the Mbappé case.

The Parisian parable of Donnarumma closes as it started: between controversy, misunderstandings and poisonous declarations. The goalkeeper, who perhaps also pays his belonging to a powerful and influential group of agents, leaves his head held high. In the hope that the blue owner, according to the law of giving money to see camel, does not end he too in Arabia and surroundings. With all due respect …