Czech legend and Ballon d'Or winner Pavel Nedved has revealed that not having the chance to join Manchester United is one of few regrets he has from an illustrious career, but the only offer he had from an English club was Chelsea.
"The fact that I've never played for Manchester United," Nedved admitted when pressed by Czech outlet iDNES for anything he wished he'd achieved but didn't manage.
"I would have liked that," he added.
Nedved was at the peak of his powers in 2003 when he scooped the Ballon d'Or ahead of Thierry Henry and Paolo Maldini, firing Juventus to the Champions League, a game he would cruelly be forced to miss through suspension as Milan prevailed on penalties after a 0-0 draw.
The midfielder had faced United twice en-route to the final that season, scoring in a Juventus loss at Old Trafford - he previously played twice at Old Trafford for Czech Republic en-route to the Euro '96 final, whilelater going on to star in the team that the reached Euro 2004 semi-finals.
But a dream move to Old Trafford never materialised.
"The transfer (to United) was never on the table, only to Chelsea," Nedved commented.
"I liked the generation of Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, which I admired," he added.
"I was a little envious of Karel Poborsky (long timeinternational team-mate), who played for Manchester United and experienced great matches - I know he still feels the love."
Nedved ultimately remained at Juventus, staying through the Calciopoli scandal in 2006 and helping the club back to Serie A after the enforced relegation. He later spent two further seasons re-establishing the fallen giants back among the Italian elite.
Nedved retired in 2009 and later joined Juve's board of directors before being appointed vice-president in 2015, a position in which he actually had contact with United this summer as part of the world record Paul Pogba deal.
He revealed that Juve "could not say no" to the deal and spoke of a conversation in which he told Pogba, with whom he shares an agent, that he needs to "play simple" to be "king" and that only a single Ballon d'Or would be a failure for his ability.
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