Juventus Denies Interest in Anelka
MADRID (June 9, 2000 5:16 p.m. EDT http://www.sportserver.com) - Roberto Bettega, vice-President of Italian giant Juventus, Friday categorically denied his club was interested in buying Real Madrid's maverick French striker Nicolas Anelka.
Bettega was speaking after a meeting of the so-called G14 group of Europe's top clubs and said: "No, we are not interested in him. We have (Darko) Kovacevic, (Filippo) Inzaghi, (Alessandro) Del Piero, (Juan) Esnaider, (Daniel) Fonseca... and we don't need any strikers."
There has been much speculation that Anelka would move to link up with French teammate Zinedine Zidane at Juve after a season that - despite victory in the Champions League - was blighted by the temperamental star's poor relations with club, players and fans.
That culminated in the 21-year-old being suspended without pay for 45 days - a sanction suspended after 22 days when the player made a public apology.
Real coach Lorenzo Sanz has said the player can move on if the buyers can find the not inconsiderable sum of $40 million - superior to the $37 million forked out to Anelka's former employers, English Premiership side Arsenal.
On June 2 the Spanish press claimed that Real coach Vicente del Bosque had insisted that Anelka should leave in a memo to Sanz.
