Juventus but the Bianconeri weren’t willing to pay for him, says Schalke general manager Horst Heldt.
The Old Lady spent much of the summer negotiating with Schalke to prise the player to Turin, but were eventually gazumped by Wolfsburg with Heldt claiming the Bianconeri did not want to pay the asking price for the 21-year-old.
“Both Julian, myself and our coach Andre Breitenwriter often spoke of the possibility that the player would leave the club,” Heldt told the German television channel Sport1.
“Juventus were interested and did submit a bid, and Julian was interested at making the move to Italy at all costs.
“But the Italian club weren’t willing to meet our expectations for the player and we decided there was no need to continue negotiating.”
Draxler made the switch to Wolfsburg on the final day of the transfer window for a fee of around €35 million, but the forward only moved to the Bundesliga runners-up after Schalke said they would rather keep the player than budge on their asking price.
“It was only on the Thursday that we started talks with Wolfsburg, with the transfer window set to close on the following Monday,” said Heldt.
“Draxler was adamant on a move to Juventus but we were clear the offer wasn’t good enough and he’d be staying at Schalke if we never received an offer that was acceptable.
“We received Wolfsburg’s offer on the Saturday evening and Julian decided that it interested him so negotiations got underway.
“Juventus were the only club outwith Germany to show an interest as nobody from Spain or England declared an interest.”
