The Italian giants, who will play Melbourne Victory on May 30 at Telstra Dome, are looking to strengthen their keeping ranks around undisputed number one Gianluigi Buffon.

Emanuele Belardi, the club number two, is reportedly the man to make for way for the out-of-contract Schwarzer as the grand old lady looks to strengthen its ranks ahead of the new season.

Whether or not Schwarzer would want to play second fiddle to Buffon is unclear.

Interestingly, Schwarzer said that Juventus keeper Gianluigi Buffon isn’t the best keeper in the world right now. Schwarzer feels that tag goes to an English premier league keeper.

“Gianluigi Buffon is one of the best but I'd have to say Petr Czech … he's got a good all-round game, he dominates his box, he catches rather than parries, and is a good kicker of the ball," he told FourFourTwo magazine.

“He's been very unfortunate with some of the injuries but he could go on to be really exceptional and, perhaps, the best that ever was.”

Schwarzer added that his future is still unclear and refused to speculate on it until after he'd finished his commitments with Middlesbrough. Those commitments are now over following Boro's 8-1 thrashing of Manchester City on Sunday.

However, Schwarzer also hasn’t ruled out a move to the German Bundesliga after being recently linked with a move to Bayern Munich.

“I guess that would complete the circle in my career,” the 35-year-old told FourFourTwo.

The Socceroo number one began his European career at Kaiserslautern over a decade ago and his parents hail from Germany.

See the full interview with Schwarzer in the July issue of FourFourTwo magazine out June 4.