Agent Pasqualin: Man Utd and Barcelona tried to take Del Piero away from Juventus

Agent Pasqualin: Man Utd and Barcelona tried to take Del Piero away from Juventus

Agent Claudio Pasqualin has recalled how Barcelona and Manchester United attempted to prise Alessandro del Piero away from Juventus.

The Italy great eventually would leave Juve for Sudney FC of Australia's A-League before the end of his career.

But at his peak, Pasqualin says Del Piero resisted offers from two global giants.

He recalled to Tuttosport: "Barcelona were interested, but they eventually turned to Rivaldo. Manchester United also wanted him: Sir Alex Ferguson greatly admired Del Piero, but in all fairness, it must be said that Alex never had any doubts: his only focus was on Juve, and he wanted to stay at Juventus at all costs.

"Therefore, our work was always aimed at reaching an agreement to extend his contract, and so discussions with other top clubs never really got going."

Pasqualin also joked: 0"Dr. Umberto Agnelli, in fact, every time we met him, he told us that Alex had taken too much money (laughs, ed.). In reality, in terms of wages, we were also partly helped by the fact that we were also partly helped by the fact that we were close to the deadline and half of Europe wanted Del Piero, beyond the champion's extraordinary value."