Mario Mandzukic has turned down offers from West Ham United and Aston Villa and could instead be heading back to Italy for a Serie A swansong, according to Gianluca di Marzio.
When this Champions League winning centre-forward bid farewell to Juventus and jetted out to Qatar in January, few would have expected that he would be returning to European soil less than 12 months later.
But, even at 34, Mandzukic is not short of admirers.
And nor should he be. The 89-capped Croatia legend was never the quickest, relying on his penalty-area instincts and physical strength in the final third, meaning he was always well placed to defy Father Time.
According to the reliable Di Marzio, Aston Villa and West Ham offered Mandzukic the chance to play Premier League football for the first time in his storied career after just five months, ten games and two goals for Al Duhail.
For reasons unknown, however, Mandzukic snubbed the chance to pull on the claret and blue kit of Villa or the Hammers.
There is still interest from Serie A in a man who scored goals for fun at Dinamo Zagreb, Wolfsburg, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid before embarking on a trophy-laden stint at Juventus.
“In the box, there is no one better in the air in the world. When we get the ball (in the air) he is very, very strong,” his former Bayern boss Pep Guardiola told ESPN in 2013.
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