Even if it took a flurry of moves on deadline day, Juventus managed to sign Federico Chiesa from Fiorentina, a player they have coveted ever since he debuted. The 22-year-old winger has joined on a convoluted formula: a two-year loan with an initial €3M fee to be paid immedialy and €7M next summer and a €40M option to buy that will become an obligation if some conditions are met, plus €10M add-ons. As reported by few sources, the Old Lady will automatically acquire him if they finish in the top four in one of the next two seasons, if he registers either ten goals or ten assists or if he plays a certain, and moderate, number of minutes. It is de facto just a technicality to dilute the payments over the next few years.
In the past four seasons, the Italian international has scored 26 times and provided 23 helpers and is coming off his best statistical campaign since he almost a double/double in 2019/2020. While he is natural right winger, he has featured on a number of positions as he has been used also on the left flank and as a second-striker. He was playing as wing-back in the latest iteration of Fiorentina, which may end up being his go-to position at Juventus if Andrea Pirlo carries on with the recent 3-4-1-2. Chiesa will be another versatile piece at his disposal while he goes through schemes.
Juventus could not make any permanent sales in the final days of the window, but still succeeded in clearing some room in the lists and shedding some salaries off the balance sheets, at least for one year, as they loaned Douglas Costa to Bayern Munich, Daniele Rugani to Rennes and Mattia De Sciglio to Lyon.
The Brazilian winger returned to the club he was purchased from in the summer of 2017. Even though he had some big flashes throughout his spell, he ultimately could not manage to stay healthy and missed the pivotal stretches of the season due to repeated muscular injuries. He appeared 87 times, but was able to start in just 41 games.
Rugani instead left the Turin-based team after five years, where he never managed to become a regular in the back. He played 22 matches in his best season in 2017/2018. Juventus will move forward with Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini, Merih Demiral and Matthijs De Ligt as their only pure centre-forwards, but Danilo and Alex Sandro could be deployed in that role in a three-man back-line and they have few options in the U-23 team in case of emergency. De Sciglio instead spent three years in Turin, generally serving as back-up on both defensive flanks and accumulating 62 caps. The new coach picked Gianluca Frabotta over him in the opener to fill in for the absent Sandro on the left flank.
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