Radja Nainggolan has revealed he didn’t join Chelsea because the Blues were shocked at his wages and what they offered him was barely a payrise on what he was earning in Italy.
The Belgium star was a priority target for Antonio Conte in 2017, with the Italian desperate to sign Nainggolan as his box-to-box midfielder at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea made a series of bids for the then-Roma star but despite the club’s willingness to deal with the Blues, Nainggolan opted to stay in Italy.
Conte was furious that Chelsea failed to make a significant enough offer to the midfielder to persuade him to join the Blues and the Italian left the club the following summer, having fallen out with the board.
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Nainggolan has now revealed that Chelsea were surprised at how much he was earning at Roma and that their offer wasn’t enough to convince him to leave Italy.
‘If I was thinking about money, I would have had a very different career, but I never cared about money. I could have gone to Juventus after Cagliari and also after Roma, just as I could have gone to Chelsea,’ said Nainggolan.
“I said I would never go to Juve, but not because I hate the Juventus team, as someone wrote on social media, but simply because I like to win against the strongest.
‘In those years the strongest team was Juve and I wanted to play against them. That was my challenge. Going to Juve, playing five games and winning everything was not winning for me.’
