Benfica president Rui Costa has spoken to his former manager Giovanni Branchini, who is now Massimiliano Allegri’s agent, to inquire about the possibility of the former Juventus coach, currently without a club, coaching the Reds, Italian media reports.
The 57-year-old coach has eight Serie A titles, five Italian Cups and three Italian Super Cups to his credit. In 2018, he turned down an offer from Real Madrid to become Zinedine Zidane’s successor.
“I have great respect for Juventus and I had to keep my word. These were the main arguments that made me calmly refuse the call from Real Madrid, the biggest club in the world, the dream of every coach,” explained the Italian before taking over the technical management of Juventus for the second time.
Benfica announced on Saturday that they would sack coach Roger Schmidt. Former Eagles coach Bruno Lage is the frontrunner, but former Porto coach Sergio Conceicao is in the running to replace the German.