Elia: I snubbed Premier League for Juve
September 1, 2011
By ESPNsoccernet staff
Juventus winger Eljero Elia has revealed there was interest in him from Arsenal and a number of Premier League clubs before he chose to move to the Bianconeri.
Elia, 24, had grown dissatisfied of life at Hamburg but rejected the possibility of a move to Galatasaray, as well as a host of clubs from England, in order to take up a new challenge in Serie A.
The Netherlands winger revealed he was advised by Oranje coach Bert van Marwijk to move to the Premier League and warned against a switch to Galatasaray.
"My agent did have contact with Arsenal, but it took too long. I had no contact with Arsene Wenger," Elia told
www.onsoranje.nl. Wigan, Everton, Fulham and Newcastle had fairly concrete interest.''
On the interest from Gala, he added: "Financially, it was a good option. I asked the coach what he thought of the idea of me playing in Turkey. He said I would be out of the view of the scouts.
"I value his opinion. The Dutch team is very important to me. That's partly why I chose Juventus, to get high-level play. He told me to go to England, but Italy was good too.''
Elia revealed he would be following in the footsteps of some of his childhood heroes by playing for Juve.
"I used to have a Del Piero shirt,'' he said. "I was also a big fan of Fabrizio Ravanelli. It's great to play with a legend like Del Piero.''
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/951690/eljero-elia:-i-snubbed-premier-league-interest-for-juventus?cc=4716
