Gianluigi Buffon is not on his way to English soccer club Chelsea insists the agent for the Italian goalkeeper.
Buffon, 28, plays for Turin-based club
Juventus in Serie B, the Italian second division. Speculation in the British press is that Chelsea, the two-time defending English Premiership champions, will make a move to sign the Italian after Christmas when the soccer transfer window re-opens.
"We would obviously be honoured if a club like Chelsea made an offer for Buffon, but I can tell you that he will not leave Turin in January," said agent Silvano Martina.
Buffon, who is also Italy's national team goalkeeper, chose to stay with
Juventus even though the famous club was demoted to the Italian second division in July for its involvement in a match-fixing scandal.
"Gianluigi is very happy at Juventus. After all, he had many offers from Italy and abroad during the summer but turned them down," Martina said.
"He chose to stay in Turin because he wanted to repay the club for helping him become famous and being one of the best players in the world."
Chelsea is in the midst of a major goalkeeping crisis.
Both their starting goalkeeper, Petr Cech of the Czech Republic, and their backup, Italian Carlo Cudicini, were injured in Chelsea's 1-0 win over Reading in the Premiership last weekend.
Cech underwent emergency surgery on Saturday after fracturing his skull in a collision with Reading's Stephen Hunt. The Czech international goalkeeper in expected to be sidelined until January.
Chelsea hopes Cudicini, who was knocked unconcious, will play next week.
Buffon, who was spectacular in helping Italy win the World Cup in Germany this past summer, moved to
Juventus from Parma, another Italian team, in 2001 for a massive 33 million pounds ($69 million Cdn), a world record transfer fee for a goalkeeper.
Earlier this week, Buffon was named among the 50 nominees for soccer's 2006 Golden Ball trophy.
The list of nominees for the prestigious European player of the year award was published Tuesday by France Football magazine. The award will be handed out in December and many soccer pundits believe Buffon has a legitimate chance of winning the honour.
Only one other goalkeeper has even been named the European player of the year — the legendary Lev Yashin in 1963 for Dynamo Moscow.
CBC News
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