Gianluigi Buffon dealt a strong shock to the Italian Football Federation, after deciding to reject an offer to return to the technical staff of the senior national team, at a time when the Azzurri are living through one of their darkest historical periods.

The newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport revealed that Paolo Maldini, technical director of the Italian federation, directly contacted Buffon and offered him a practical position within the 'Club Italia' project, the entity responsible for overseeing all national teams.

Maldini was betting on Buffon's popularity and immense experience, as the most capped player for Italy in history and the last goalkeeper to win the World Cup, in addition to his deep knowledge of the current generation, to lead the rebuilding phase after the disaster of elimination from the World Cup qualifying play-off against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Buffon had previously held the position of coordinator of the Italian national team, before resigning along with coach Gennaro Gattuso and federation president Gabriele Gravina, following the failure to qualify for the World Cup for the third consecutive time last March.

Although the Italian legend studied the offer seriously, he informed Maldini that the time is not right for a return, preferring to continue staying away from football since his departure last April, and to devote himself to his family and complete his studies in preparation for an administrative future.