The agent of James Rodriguez says the Porto winger came close to joining Juventus. Bruno Carpeggiani says the 21-year-old was on the verge of moving to Turin in 2010.

"I can confirm it is true," he told tuttojuve.com. "The move was in the pipeline for some time. I do not like to talk about deals [that do not materialize], but Juve at the time were not the side they are now.

"You would have to ask [former Juventus chief scout Renzo] Catagnini why they did not take him."

The agent, though, did confirm that the Dragoes' man would consider a move to Italy sometime in the future.

"Porto is a club dear to James' heart, so it would need a very large sum to make him interested. Now that Porto have sold Hulk though, I could not deprive him [of a move]."