The Romanian tactician claims that he made the approach before the Italy international renewed his contract with the Serie A champions.
"We tried to sign Buffon," he told Tuttosport. "But then he renewed with Juve and that was the end of that.
"It would have been a superb signing for us, both on the pitch and our image off it."
Buffon has been at Juventus since 2001.
Restore Data
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | PTS | |
| 1 | Shakhtar DonetskShakhtar | 24 | 18 | 4 | 2 | 51 | 20 | 31 | 58 |
| 2 | Dynamo Kiev | 24 | 17 | 3 | 4 | 57 | 24 | 33 | 54 |
| 3 | Kryvbas Kryvyi RihKryvbas Kryvyi | 25 | 15 | 6 | 4 | 44 | 25 | 19 | 51 |
| 4 | Dnipro-1Dnipro-1 | 25 | 12 | 9 | 4 | 35 | 23 | 12 | 45 |
| 5 | Rukh Lviv | 25 | 10 | 11 | 4 | 36 | 26 | 10 | 41 |
| 6 | Polissya ZhytomyrPolissya | 25 | 11 | 6 | 8 | 31 | 26 | 5 | 39 |
| 7 | LNZ CherkasyCherkasy | 25 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 25 | 28 | -3 | 32 |
| 8 | Vorskla PoltavaVorskla | 25 | 8 | 6 | 11 | 23 | 37 | -14 | 30 |
| 9 | Chornomorets OdesaChornomorets | 24 | 9 | 2 | 13 | 34 | 34 | 0 | 29 |
| 10 | Kolos KovalivkaKovalivka | 24 | 6 | 10 | 8 | 18 | 19 | -1 | 28 |
| 11 | Zorya LuhanskLuhansk | 24 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 25 | 32 | -7 | 26 |
| 12 | FC OleksandriyaOleksandriya | 25 | 6 | 7 | 12 | 22 | 34 | -12 | 25 |
| 13 | Obolon KyivObolon | 25 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 16 | 35 | -19 | 21 |
| 14 | Veres | 24 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 22 | 35 | -13 | 20 |
| 15 | Metalist Kharkiv | 25 | 4 | 7 | 14 | 25 | 44 | -19 | 19 |
| 16 | Minai | 25 | 2 | 10 | 13 | 18 | 40 | -22 | 16 |
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