Alessandro del Piero's former agent has claimed that the player rejected the chance to join Liverpool due to the Heysel disaster.
Liverpool declared their interest in the Juventus legend in an attempt to bolster their strike force, but the 37-year-old opted to join Sydney FC instead.
Del Piero's ex-representative, Claudio Pasqualin, believes that the striker made his choice out of respect for the disaster, which happened when Juventus and Liverpool met in the 1985 European Cup final.
"I think as a real Juventino, out of respect and remembrance for the massacre at Heysel, he said no to Liverpool," Pasqualin told TMW.
An altercation between fans of the two clubs before the 1985 final resulted in a wall collapsing, killing 39 fans - the vast majority of whom were Juventus supporters.