One of the greatest defenders of all time, Giorgio Chiellini is a nine-time Serie A winner with Juventus and a European champion with Italy.
With such a decorated career, in tandem with remarkable consistency and quality during his playing years, he has rightfully earned the utmost respect from the football world.
With such a legacy, his opinions on the game naturally carry weight, and when a player of his stature speaks, people listen.
But while legends often use their platform and reputation to shed a positive light on other players and former teammates, Chiellini did something a little different in his autobiography. He went out of his way to name not one, but two players he would consider the worst he has played alongside.
Chiellini Named His Worst Ever Teammates
Via his autobiography, titled “Io Giorgio”, Chiellini highlighted Mario Balotelli and Felipe Melo as the worst players he has ever played with, for their “lack of respect”. He wrote:
“I was really let down by two players and I confirm everything I wrote in the book. Balotelli is a negative person, with no respect for the group. During the Confederations Cup against Brazil in 2013, he didn’t lend a helping hand for anything, he really did deserve a slap.
“Some people thought he was among the top five strikers in the world, but I never even considered him in the top 10 or 20.
“However, there was someone worse, Felipe Melo: really the worst of the worst.
“I cannot abide people who lack respect, those who always want to be contrarians. With him around, it was permanently likely to break out into a brawl. I told the directors that, too: he is a bad apple.”
During the aforementioned 2013 Confederations Cup campaign, Chiellini and Balotelli both featured side by side for Italy, and the latter netted twice in the tournament, before suffering an injury prior to the semi-finals round. That was among a number of international competitions in which the pair played together, including the 2012 Euros in which Italy were named runners-up to rampant winners, Spain.
Key Events Timeline
- June 2013 — Chiellini and Balotelli played together for Italy at the Confederations Cup in Brazil.
- May 2020 — Chiellini’s autobiography labelled Balotelli negative and Felipe Melo “the worst of the worst”.
- May 2020 — Balotelli and Melo publicly hit back at the Juventus captain’s criticism.
- May 2020 — Chiellini apologised to Balotelli, admitting he had made a mistake.
- May 2020 — Melo claimed the feud stemmed from him headbutting Chiellini at Juventus.
Chiellini did later admit on live TV in 2020 that he may have gone too far with his comments in his autobiography:
“I made a mistake and I learned from it and will continue to learn from my mistakes every day.”
But the 42-year-old is yet to truly bury the hatchet with Felipe Melo, who he played alongside 65 times in Juventus colours. In fact, the Brazilian, who has been considered one of the dirtiest players since 2000, fired back at Chiellini later, claiming he had “never apologised” for the comments in his book:
“He just has a problem with me because I headbutted him when we were playing against Siena.
“I haven’t spoken to him since and he wrote this book
“Chiellini never apologised to me, but that’s fine, as long as he takes responsibility for what he said.”
Statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt.com – Correct as of 30-10-26.
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