European champions Barcelona are interested in signing French defender Lilian Thuram from Juventus, Spanish paper El Mundo Deportivo reported Wednesday. Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard has been observing the veteran stopper during the World Cup and may make a move to land him after his impressive performance, the paper added. Thuram has announced his retirement from international football after helping his country reach the World Cup final before losing to Italy on penalties. But the 34-year-old Thuram said he is keen on continuing with his club career and opened the door for moving to another European club should Juventus be relegated to a lower division Italian champions Juventus, alongside Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina, face the threat of demotion to lower ranks and pay huge fines if they were found guilty with sports fraud and match-fixing. The Catalan sports daily said that Thuram's Juventus team mate Gianluca Zambrotta, who was Rijkaard's first-choice, didn't give his final reply on Barca offer yet after Real Madrid joined the race. Rijkaard has no problems in landing veterans following his gamble on 32-year-old striker Henrik Larsson succeeded. He also signed veteran midfielder Demetrio Albertini on a six-month deal but the Italian failed to impress and wasn't granted a contract extension.
