Italian World Cup wining striker Luca Toni hailed his six-month loan move from German giants Bayern Munich to Serie A side AS Roma yesterday, saying that they were the only club he wanted to move to.
The 32-year-old added that it wasn’t because he wanted to get enough first team action — he moved after falling out with Bayern’s autocratic coach Louis van Gaal — to get into contention for the national squad for the World Cup finals.
“I am not just here so I can get into the World Cup squad,” Toni said. “My ambition is to score as many goals as possible and to play well for the red and yellow. Then we will see what happens in June, the national side is simply an afterthought.”
PHOTO: AFP
Toni, who moved from Fiorentina to Bayern in 2007 and was the Bundesliga’s top scorer in his first season, with 24 goals in 31 league games on the way to Bayern winning the German title, was not afraid to be compared to former Roma hero Gabriel Batistuta.
“They often made the comparison between the two of us when I was at Fiorentina but I went on to beat Gabriel’s goalscoring record there,” Toni said. “At Roma he won the title. We will see what happens with the red and yellow.”
Toni went to great lengths to insist that it had only been Roma he wanted to move to.
“In the past month there have been plenty of teams who wanted to sign me but I only wanted to move to Roma,” he said. “We worked hard to reach an agreement and I am happy to be here.”
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