Sandro Tonali joined Newcastle for £55m in 2023 and immediately hit the ground running by scoring in a 5-1 win against Aston Villa on the opening weekend of the 2023/24 season – fans were immediately hooked.

However, Tonali was hit with a 10-month ban shortly after his move, meaning that he was not seen in Newcastle’s first-team squad again until August 2024.

Despite the lengthy absence, the 24-year-old has barely put a foot wrong for the Magpies this season, playing an integral part in Newcastle’s Carabao Cup final win at Wembley Stadium earlier in March.

The Italian joined Newcastle from AC Milan, but in a recent interview, Tonali admitted that his career path could have been a whole lot different – it could have been down to a current Manchester United player.

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Matthijs de Ligt told Sandro Tonali to join Juventus before Newcastle transfer

Tonali is a boyhood Milan fan, so a move elsewhere would have been deemed as crazy by their fans. The midfielder proved to be a huge success for them, winning the Serie A title in 2022 and being named in the league’s Team of the Season for the 2022/23 campaign.

However, all those achievements could have been for another club, as he revealed in an interview with Cronache di Spogliatoio that Man United defender Matthijs de Ligt tried to convince him that a move to Juventus was much better than Milan.

The 25-year-old played for Juventus at the time, having made a big-money move from Ajax in 2019.

“We were in Sardinia, me, Cistana and Torregrossa, the Brescia group in short,” he said.

“At a restaurant we met De Ligt. It was the year we had played against each other in Serie A, the year of Covid. He spoke highly of Juventus, as a player he advised me to think about it.

“Those were the days I was negotiating with Milan. We had stopped to talk after a match. It happens that for a handful of seconds, you find yourself chatting with an opponent even if you don’t know him, more out of respect.

“Some of them you then memorise, and when you see them, you think: ‘I’ve already seen this’. It was the summer when I ended up in the newspapers, because it was difficult for me to return to Serie B with Brescia. Milan, Inter and Juve were up for grabs all summer. And so, everyone told me: ‘Come to Inter, come to Milan, come to Juve’.”

Tonali ended up ignoring de Ligt’s conversation, signing for Milan before his eventual move to Tyneside.

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Sandro Tonali tipped to join Juventus this summer

While the Magpies are looking to improve their squad in the upcoming summer transfer window, reports suggest that Tonali could be set to leave the club.

Juventus are interested in Tonali alongside other clubs across Europe, including Barcelona and Milan, but the Italian himself has not let any of the transfer speculation get in his way.

Tonali reassured Darren Eales he is happy at Newcastle, privately telling him that he wants to repay the club for everything they did for him during his ban.

In a recent interview, Tonali shut down Newcastle exit claims by stating that he does not look at any transfer news surrounding him on social media.

Before the summer window, there is a clear task at hand – one which Tonali can play a big part in – get Newcastle back to the Champions League. With 10 games left in the Premier League season, it is still all to play for.