Juventus general manager Beppe Marotta has dropped a hint that the club could be lining up AC Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma as a successor to Gianluigi Buffon.
Buffon has declared his intention to retire from international football with Italy after the 2018 World Cup, when he will be 40. He has not announced whether that will also be the end of his club career, but Juve know they will have to start looking for a new No. 1 sooner or later.
Donnarumma, 17, is Buffon's understudy for Italy and while Marotta insists they are not interested in the Milan keeper right now, his comments on life after Juve's No. 1 steps aside suggested otherwise.
"In the last 20 years, the Italy national team goalkeeper has always come from Juventus," Marotta said at a news conference. "I say this just to make it clear to you -- there has been [Dino] Zoff, Buffon and... the history of Juventus is made up of champions and talented Italians.
"Today we have Buffon and we're keeping a tight hold on him as he is going to continue playing for us for a few years and he represents all the good things there are to talk about in football. Then we will look around and evaluate who to replace him with.
"It's certainly not going to be easy because replacing a player like Buffon is a difficult challenge, but Juventus' ambitions are to find a worthy successor."
When asked specifically about Donnarumma, who made his Serie A debut at the age of 16, Marotta said he is "not even thinking about it," although he did add that Juve "always want to have good goalkeepers."
The Bianconeri would face fierce competition for Donnarumma were they to make a bid for him, with Chelsea, Barcelona, Manchester United and Manchester City all reportedly keeping a close eye on him.