GIANLUIGI DONNARUMMA on why he left PSG for Man City, the crucial letter he wrote before winning the Champions League, 'Mr Guardiola', how he winds up best mate Erling Haaland and his Ballon d'Or dream

The world’s best goalkeeper walks into a small room and folds his enormous frame into a plastic chair. On his right cheek is a three-inch scar – a football boot to the face can do that – and on a table nearby is his first trophy in English football.

Gianluigi Donnarumma of Manchester City earned that first piece of silverware within an hour of wearing his new club’s colours for the first time. The Italian’s right-handed stretch to deny Bryan Mbeumo in September’s Manchester derby earned him the Premier League’s save of the month award.

‘Debuts are never easy, especially in a new league, and that was a big one,’ Donnarumma tells Daily Mail Sport in his first big English interview. ‘Actually, maybe I was a bit excited. But I think I managed it well.’

The transformation that has swept through Pep Guardiola’s City squad since last season’s difficulties probably peaked when Donnarumma arrived on the last day of the summer transfer window.

The 26-year-old won the Champions League with Paris Saint-Germain only last May and had been central to it. Both Liverpool – in a penalty shootout at Anfield – and Arsenal – in a frantic semi-final second leg in Paris – had bent to the giant goalkeeper’s whim.

From that point of view, it’s a surprise to see Donnarumma in England. Exactly 10 years after his debut for AC Milan as a 16-year-old, the captain of the Italian national team appeared to have found a real home in France.

But Donnarumma’s reasons for his move are simple. He is at City, he says, to learn.

‘The goalkeeper’s role has evolved a lot,’ he explains. ‘And now I am with Mr Guardiola, who can help. I need a greater understanding of some important situations in order to help this team to progress.’

Donnarumma grew up near Naples in a bedroom with posters of the great Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon on the wall. At the age of 17, Donnarumma made his national team debut by replacing his idol at half-time of a game against France. 

Buffon, for context, had made his own Italian debut 484 days before Donnarumma had even been born.

That paints a pretty accurate picture of the City’s goalkeeper career. If it feels as though he has been around for ever, that’s because he has. By coincidence, Saturday marks the 10th anniversary of the day in 2015 that Donnarumma made his senior bow for Milan against Sassuolo.

‘I didn't sleep much before that day,’ Donnarumma says. ‘You know what it’s like when you are young. You are reckless and that makes it all easier. But I was agitated before that one. I was very young.

‘I think I knew I could go far but it’s still not easy to make your debut with a club like AC Milan at the age of 16. And now? For me, I’m living a dream and yes I’ll always have to be thankful to my first coach Sinisa Mihajlovic (who passed away after a battle with cancer in 2022), who put me in.

‘It was very important for me. It was the key to all of it. Now here at City I just want more. That's why I am here.’

We perhaps feel that we know Donnarumma because he has been central to our footballing lives for so long. It’s already more than four years, for example, since he saved two England penalties to win the final of Euro 2020 for Italy at Wembley.

But the version of himself that he has presented to the Premier League has still made people sit up and take notice. It was showcased perfectly as City drew 1-1 at Arsenal in September. Donnarumma’s dominance in the air was extraordinary and all but nullified Arsenal’s notorious set-pieces.

Donnarumma is quick to acknowledge he has certain physical advantages. ‘I am very tall,’ he reminds me when talk turns to the specifics of his art. ‘And it helps’.

At 6ft 5in, the City goalkeeper has five inches on David Raya at Arsenal and four on England and Everton’s Jordan Pickford. Liverpool’s Alisson Becker gets closest, at 6ft 4in.

Perhaps most importantly, he is three inches taller than his his predecessor at the Etihad Stadium, Ederson, and that is probaby the key to it. After years of marvelling at Ederson’s use of the ball with his feet, City needed someone they could rely on with his hands.

‘The important thing is to make saves, first of all,’ nods Donnarumma.

That day at Arsenal, Donnarumma’s intention seemed clear. He came for absolutely everything and pretty much got all of it. He once outlined his philosophy by saying: 'A goalkeeper must be heard and command the defence. That way they can feel safe with me, the way I feel safe with them.'

It seems simple and at his best Donnarumma makes it seem so. If the Premier League is changing in terms of a return to emphasis on more direct play, set-pieces and even long throws, maybe the goalkeepers need to change too.

‘I am very tall, and I try to cover as much space as possible in the box,’ he explains. ‘The important thing is to have a balance and understand when you can come away from your goal line and when you can’t. It’s very important, because exaggerations either way are never good.

‘So situations must always be well dealt with. However, my first goal on corners is to help my team because they need my presence in the box. Here at City we prepare every single detail on the pitch. We knew Arsenal are very strong on corners, very difficult to play against. So the team needed me and my help.’

Donnarumma’s departure from PSG was due in some part to the fact that a contract extension was unsigned. Equally, coach Luis Enrique suggested he needed a ‘different profile’, the insinuation being that he wanted a footballer in between his posts. When PSG travelled to Udine to play the Super Cup against Tottenham in August, their star goalkeeper was left behind.

‘Goalkeepers have evolved a lot from the point of view of using their feet in the last few years,’ Donnarumma adds. ‘You always try and give significant help with that within the game. But also surely some situations must be well understood, to help the team in difficult moments when it comes to managing ball possession.

‘You can always improve and understand. Mr Guardiola will help me, as I say. But you must always understand situations where you can play the ball and get benefit from that play or whether that’s just a risk.’

If Donnarumma presents now as a footballer at ease with himself then City will in all likelihood benefit. Settled in the North West with his fiancee Alessia – an interior designer – and their young son Leo, he doesn’t baulk when asked to look at some Instagram photographs that showcase the couple's marvellous enthusiasm for Halloween costumes.

‘Oh yes, we do that every year,’ he laughs.

So what about this Friday? ‘Yes, we will be doing it but I won't tell you the costumes,’ he adds. ‘Alessia decides and I just wear them!’

It has not always been so straightforward. His departure from Milan for Paris was so badly received by fans of the Italian club that he was actually jeered while playing at the San Siro for Italy against England. On another occasion, the Rossoneri threw fake dollar bills at him with his face on the front. The subject remains raw enough for him not to wish to discuss it.

Fortunately, his departure from Paris – where he won four French titles and the Champions League – was ultimately less rancorous. Indeed, before the Champions League final dismantling of Inter, Donnarumma wrote individual letters to all his team-mates and left them in their bedrooms.

‘We had faced some difficult situations with that group and in the Champions League there had been times when it could have gone wrong like it had before,’ he explains. 'But we came out of that situation all together.

‘So, in that moment, I felt I had a duty to give them what I felt about what we had been through together throughout the whole season. I wanted to transmit this to them. With a letter I wanted to express how much I cared for them and maybe provide a bit of motivation for the game.

‘They will always be in my heart, all my team-mates I had there, and I wanted to get into their heart. They were and still are my brothers.

‘We know how the game went and, no, it was not thanks to me writing that letter. But to win that game I think was to close an important circle in our lives and in our season.’

This is an interview conducted via a translator. Donnarumma’s English is not where he wishes it to be quite yet. Nevertheless, some things are easy enough to understand in either language.

Asked if he feels guilty for breaking English hearts in that Euro final four summers ago, he smiles. ‘No, bene,’ he laughs in Italian. Loosely translated, it means ‘I feel good’.

The details of that night are etched in the minds of all who were there. A second-minute goal for England’s Luke Shaw followed by an Italian comeback and a shootout win for Roberto Mancini’s team on the back of Donnarumma saves from Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, while Marcus Rashford was denied by a post.

‘Seriously, it was such a difficult game to face England at Wembley,’ he recalls. ‘But we felt we could beat anyone. All the home fans were against us but I think that also gave us an emotional charge to be willing to prove something.

‘And we did, because we played a great game. We did not start well. England took advantage of the stadium. They scored and it was a bad period for us. But once we came out I’d say we could have won the game even within the 90 minutes, with the chances we created.’

Footage of that game viewed now reveals some curious things. Federico Chiesa – who can’t get a start for Liverpool – was Italy’s best player. Mason Mount, meanwhile, was a starter for England.

Most peculiar of all, however, is that Donnarumma does not react at all on diving left to save Saka’s kick and winning the cup for his country. The reason? He didn’t know it was over.

‘I had lost count of the penalties,’ he explains. ‘I was not aware that, had I saved that penalty, we would have won. I was so focused on the situation, to be able to help the team on penalties, that in that moment anything could have happened.

‘Jorginho had missed our penalty before and that upset me, because it’s very difficult or unbelievable for Jorginho to miss penalties. So I had been ready to celebrate that one going in and maybe then some shock.

‘Yeah, I saved the next one and then I saw everyone running towards me. I realised and eventually we celebrated all together. But there was a time when I really did not figure out we had won.’

Italy’s fortunes since that day have been mixed, to say the least. Donnarumma has 78 caps already and will perhaps one day eclipse Buffon’s enormous tally of 176. But having failed to reach a World Cup since 2014, not won a knockout game in that tournament since they won it in 2006, and having exited Euro 2024 in the last 16, the Azzurri have some recent wrongs to right.

Italy sit second in their World Cup qualifying group, three points behind Norway with two games to play, chasing the one automatic qualification spot and avoiding the dreaded play-offs. The teams face each other in Milan in their final group game next month, bringing Donnarumma face to face with his new best friend, Erling Haaland - who scored against him in Norway's resounding 3-0 win in Oslo back in June.

The two men have become largely inseparable since Donnarumma’s arrival in England, sitting next to each other on the team bus and socialising away from training. A more conspicuous couple it is hard to imagine.

‘When a friendship becomes so strong, it can’t be explained, and the impact between us was very positive,’ he says. ‘I’d say we just got on well immediately. We have always respected each other, even before we met.

‘We make a lot of banter about playing against each other in the national teams. I’d say they are in a better situation than us now, they have much more peace of mind.

‘But there are still two games left to play. It will be difficult to face each other, as it will be difficult to play against him. I know how strong he is and what chances he can create. It will be hard to face him both as a player and as a friend.’

Former Milan and England coach Fabio Capello recently suggested Italy have the world’s best goalkeeper and England the best centre forward. We presume he meant Harry Kane.

But when asked to sum up the best – or the one with the hardest shot to be more precise – Donnarumma introduces only one other name into a Haaland-heavy conversation.

‘I think Erling does,’ says Donnarumma. ‘He is left-footed so he is different from Kylian (Mbappe). They are both hard to play against. So it’s complicated. But I would rather have Erling playing for my side.’

With that this endearingly uncomplicated son of a carpenter takes his leave. The winner of this year’s Lev Yashin Award, given to the world’s best goalkeeper, already has a Ballon d’Or in his sights.

That doesn’t tend to happen to goalkeepers - Yashin, in 1963, remains the only one to win it - but then 16-year-olds aren’t supposed to play in Serie A, either.

A goalkeeper who prioritises stopping the ball? It will never catch on.