SS Lazio linked again with Del Piero bid

SS Lazio have been linked again with a move for Juventus contract rebel Alessandro Del Piero.

In contract negotiations with the Turin club, the Italian striker has stuck to his demands for a £5 million a year wage package to make him the best paid Italian national player.

His contract with Juve ends next summer at which point he could leave the club for free under the Bosman ruling. Juventus do not of course want that to happen with a player valued at around £18 million. That is the sum Lazio president Sergio Cragnotti has set aside to bring Parma AC midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron to the Rome club but if that deal fails then a move for Del Piero has been discussed at board level. Lazio were linked with a massive £25 million bid for the player who is recovering well from knee surgery last summer as the problems Del Piero saw with his Juventus contract were first made public.

Juve have only offered £2 million a season to keep Del Piero at the club in a deal that runs from next summer until 2005. Several clubs including Atletico Madrid and Lazio are prepared to top that figure as the Italian demands to enter the Ronaldo pay league.

Talks between Juventus and Del Piero's agents are continuing in Turin but hopes that a new deal with the striker could be signed this week have faded recently as the wage sum offered remains the main point of contention between club and player.