“?Serie A champions Juventus are targeting AC Milan wonderkid Gianluigi Donnarumma as their long-term replacement for Italian keeper Gianluigi Buffon, who has been at Juve since 2001 and has made over 450 appearances for the Italian giants since joining from Parma.
Juventus chief executive Giuseppe Marotta (via the Sun) strongly hinted at the possibility of trying to bring in Donnarumma, with the 17-year-old also certain to take over Buffon in the Italian national side.
Buffon has featured for five other Italian youth squads and as well as playing 167 times for the first team – it’s fair to say he has created a legacy during his playing days.
Marotta talks highly of Buffon and when speaking about the national team and Juventus he said: “Juventus have given many players to the national team.”
He then said, “In the last 20 years, the national team’s goalkeeper has always been Juve’s – Zoff, Buffon – the history of Juventus is made up of Italian champions and talents.”
When asked about Donnarumma he played it down, but did hint that when Buffon retires he could be the ideal replacement, saying: “Donnarumma? We’re not thinking about him. We always want to have the best goalkeepers.
“Today we have Buffon, who will play with us for a few more years, and it’s beautiful that he represents everything good about football.
“After that, we’ll look around and replace him with someone. Of course, it won’t be easy to replace a player like Buffon. It’s a difficult task, but Juventus’ ambition is to find a worthy successor.”?
Milan are now looking to secure the services of Donnarumma for the long-term, it would be a huge statement for Milan if they could tie down a deal for the keeper, and it could put them back on the map of European football.
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