Turin, June 7 (IANS): Juventus have announced a one-year contract extension of French veteran defender Patrice Evra, keeping him with the Italian football champions till June 30, 2017.
"Patrice Evra has renewed his Juventus contract for an additional year -- with an option for a second -- keeping him at the Turin club until at least 30 June 2017," Juventus said in a statement on Monday.
The 35-year-old is part of the France squad attempting to win Euro 2016 starting from June 10 on home soil.
Evra arrived at Juventus in the summer of 2014 on the back of a trophy-laden eight-and-a-half years at Manchester United, where he won five English Premier League titles, three League Cups and the Champions League.
The left back has continued his longstanding habit of picking up silverware, helping Juventus to a historic second Serie A and Coppa Italia double in consecutive seasons in addition to last year’s Italian Super Cup.
"His countless experience on football’s biggest of stages has been an invaluable element in the Bianconeri’s overall development into one of the major forces in the European game," the statement added.
His strength of character, clearly evident at the best of times, shone through brilliantly during the side’s lowest ebb of the 2015-16 campaign. Following the defeat to Sassuolo in October, his and captain Gianluigi Buffon’s powerful post-match words helped to galvanise the group and instigate the record-breaking run of 85 points out of a possible 90 to seal a Scudetto that many people outside the club had said was beyond them.
As well as forming part of a formidable defensive unit, which conceded a league low 20 goals in 2015/16 en route to the club’s history-making fifth successive league title, he also impressed in his own right last term, making considerably more tackles than the average full-back in Serie A (1.54 per game vs. 1.26).
Meanwhile, the Frenchman has also posed a consistent threat going forwards, again posting figures far above the average for his position in Italy’s top flight, whether in terms of creating goalscoring opportunities (1 vs. 0.41), delivering crosses (2.54 vs. 1.29), completing passes (34.85 vs. 30.53) or fashioning shots on target (0.23 vs. 0.11).
In addition to his three assists, Evra has also chipped in with a pair of headed goals against Empoli and Sampdoria respectively.