Italian national team manager Cesare Prandelli has said that he almost became the manager of Juventus, who are one of the biggest clubs in Italy. The 55-year-old has revealed that he was contacted back in 2004 by Juventus with regard to filling up the vacant managerial job.

Prandelli has said that he held talks with Luciano Moggi, who was the director general of the club at the time, in order to leave Parma and sign for the Old Lady. Despite holding talks with Prandelli, Juventus decided to recruit the services of current Russian national team manager Fabio Capello.

After spells at Roma and Parma, Prandelli has been doing extremely well with the national team. He managed to replace Capello when the latter left Roma. The move to sign Capello actually proved good for Juventus, as they managed to win two titles under the stewardship of the Italian. The Calciopoli scandal, though, resulted in these two titles being stripped away from Juventus. Capello departed Juventus for a managerial stint with the Spanish giants – Real Madrid. Prandelli has managed to reduce the average age of the national team, while also maintaining the results.

The team made it into the finals of the Euro 2012 where they were defeated by world champions Spain.

“It’s true, there was contact in the past.I talked to [then director general] Luciano Moggi at the end of my spell at Parma. However, they decided to take a different route and they signed a certain Fabio Capello instead,” said Prandelli in a recent interview. Italy have been good in the recent World Cup qualifying matches, but they are yet to seal qualification to the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil. The team have a three-point advantage at the top of the table over second placed Bulgaria after having played five matches.