McKennie discusses the extent to which Juventus went to freeze him out

Weston McKennie spent the second half of the 2022/23 season on loan at Leeds United, hoping to leave Juventus permanently. However, his spell was unsuccessful, as he could not prevent the Whites from being relegated from England’s top flight. Consequently, Leeds was not obligated to activate his buy clause, and he returned to Juventus.

However, the Old Lady seemed to have moved on from the American, even removing his locker from the dressing room. When he returned, he had to change with the Juve youngsters, which motivated him to show his best form on the pitch and prove his doubters wrong.

McKennie, speaking to the The Athletic had this to say on the situation.

“I knew it was going to be (challenging). I didn’t know it was going to be to that extent; where I didn’t have my locker, I didn’t have a room in the hotel, I didn’t have a parking space. I changed in the locker rooms with the academy kids, even when you had players in the main locker room who had never played a game for Juventus because they’d always been out on loan. And I’m thinking to myself, ‘Wow, I’ve only been gone for six months. I come back and I am treated like this’.

“I couldn’t even get my shirt number, even though nobody else had taken the number. I was like, ‘OK you guys want to treat me like this? I’m just going to show you on the field’.’

Juve FC Says

McKennie was clearly out of our plans in 2023 and was supposed to leave before last season began.

However, he deserves credit for fighting and winning a place back on our first team.

When it seemed his career in Turin was over, he stormed back and proved to be too good to ignore.