Juventus chief admits interest in AC Milan's teenage keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma as club seek 'worthy heir' to Gianluigi Buffon

Juventus believe teenager goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma is the heir to Gianluigi Buffon and have made signing him their next objective, according to the Italian press.

The Italian champions' chief executive Giuseppe Marotta was asked about 17-year-old Donnarumma, who has performed impressively for AC Milan and is tipped to become the next Italy No 1, at a press conference.

And though Marotta tried to deny Juve's interest, he said that the club has a tradition of always having the first choice Azzurri keeper.

Juventus have set their sights on teenage Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, according to reports in the Italian media following comments by their chief executive Giuseppe Marotta

Donnarumma, 17, is considered as the heir to Italy legend Gianluigi Buffon (right)

Marotta said: 'Juventus have given many players to the national team. In the last 20 years, the national team's goalkeeper has always been Juve's - [Dino] Zoff, Buffon - the history of Juventus is made up of Italian champions and talents.

'Donnarumma? We're not thinking about him. We always want to have the best goalkeepers.

'Today we have Buffon, who will play with us for a few more years, and it's beautiful that he represents everything good about football.

'After that, we'll look around and replace him with someone. Of course, it won't be easy to replace a player like Buffon.

'It's a difficult task, but Juventus' ambition is to find a worthy successor.'

Buffon and Donnarumma are pictured together in training as Italy prepare to face Germany

Gazzetta dello Sport runs with the headline 'Assault on Gigio' after Marotta's comments

These comments, which first appeared on the Calcio Mercato website, were enough to whip the Italian sports scribes into a friendly and the front pages of Tuesday's newspapers are dominated by Marotta's comments.

La Gazzetta dello Sport runs the headline 'Assault on Gigio' and 'Objective Donnarumma', saying that Marotta is open to signing the young star.

Corriere dello Sport splashes with 'Juve want him!' and picks up on the quotes about the club needing a 'worthy heir' to Buffon.

'From Gigi to Gigio' runs the headline on Tuttosport, stressing the comments from Marotta that the club always need to have the national team keeper.

Corriere dello Sport also leads on the story, with the headline 'Juve wants him1'

'From Gigi [Buffon] to Gigio' is on the front page of Tuesday's edition of Tuttosport

Italy coach Giampiero Ventura speaks with Donnarumma during training on Monday

So as Juventus join the growing list of Donnarumma admirers, Milan are scrambling to tie the teenager down to a new contract and believe this can be done by the time of his 18th birthday on February 25.

The apparent interest from one of their biggest rivals will only hasten this process.

Donnarumma has made rapid progress since he made his Milan debut in the Serie A match with Sassuolo on October 25 last year, at the age of 16 years and 242 days.

He has since established himself as first choice for his club and also earned his first senior international cap for Italy when he came on for Buffon halfway through their friendly with France on September 1.

In so doing, Donnarumma became the youngest keeper ever to play for Italy at 17 years and 189 days.