Riccardo Montolivo insists he holds no grudge with AC Milan even as he retires 18 months on from his final Serie A appearance.
The 34-year-old has been without a club since his Milan contract ran out at the end of the 2018-19 season and has now decided to call a halt to his career.
However, Montolivo had not played a professional match since a 1-1 draw at Atalanta on May 13, 2018, being named on the bench 17 times in Serie A last term without making a single appearance.
Discussing his retirement with Corriere dello Sport, Montolivo revealed he had accepted a fringe role for his final campaign at the club but was disappointed not to feature at all.
I last played in May 2018, at Atleti Azzurri d Italia, the same stadium where I had started sixteen years before, he said.
I had two seasons at Atalanta, seven at Fiorentina and seven at Milan, although the last year-and-a-half has been an ordeal. I was marginalised, answers were never given.
I don t hold a grudge. Those who have been wrong with me, those who have disrespected me, repeatedly, will probably come to terms with their conscience.
1222 giorni dopo torna a gonfiare la rete / has scored his first Red Black goal since 13/04/14
— AC Milan (@acmilan)
Montolivo added of Gennaro Gattuso, his last coach at Milan: In the end, I also received the compliments of the coach.
And do you know what he added? That he would have been crazy had he been in my place. I felt cheated once more.
Montolivo lost the Milan captaincy to Leonardo Bonucci upon the latter s arrival from Juventus in 2017, a decision made without any input from the deposed skipper.
I didn t deliver [the armband] to him, the midfielder said. They told me that [then owner] Li Yonghong had decided the armband would be passed to one of the new signings.
When they told me about it, I explained that I found it unfair, that they were making a big mistake because there are hierarchies in the locker room that should always be respected.
I put forward the names of [Giacomo] Bonaventura and [Alessio] Romagnoli. But nothing Bonucci.
In today s football, everyone thinks for himself. Solidarity, the sense of the group, this is stuff of the past. Anyway, [his team-mates] couldn t do anything.
