Donnarumma furious at World Cup bonus rumours: I never went to ask for a single euro!

Donnarumma furious at World Cup bonus rumours: I never went to ask for a single euro!

Manchester City and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma has responded to claims of a World Cup bonus.

Italy have last played in the World Cup in 2014 and have not played a knockout game in the competition since 2006.

Now, after their loss to Bosnia and Herzegovinian, they will miss this summer’s competition following a heartbreaking penalty shoot out.

Following the defeat, reports claimed that Italy players demanded a bonus to qualify for the World Cup which Donnarumma has outright denied this week.

"I was hurt more by the comments (from the media), by the words that were said," the Manchester City goalkeeper told Sky Italia.

"As captain, I never went to ask the Italian national team for a single euro.

"What the national team does, as always, in every competition, is give a gift to the players who qualify for a tournament.

"That was all there was to it, but nobody asked the federation for anything; our reward was getting to go to the World Cup."

Donnarumma, who has 81 caps for the Azzurri, says Italy must start to rebuild the side who have let down their country three times in a row as their current side begins to age.

"We have to start afresh, move on," Donnarumma said.

"We have to bounce back; there are four years until the next World Cup, and in the meantime there are major competitions like the European Championship and the Nations League.

"Before thinking about the World Cup, we need to focus on these big tournaments in between and we need to start again strongly straight away."

Brazil, with five titles, is the only country to have won more World Cups than Italy and Germany and they will aim to extend their lead on the world stage this summer in the US, Canada and Mexico.