According to Sky Sports, Ajax’s highly-rated young centre-back Matthijs de Ligt looks set to seal a £62million move to Italian giants Juventus. The move will reportedly net the youngster £10.7million per season, which would make him the second-highest paid player at the club after Cristiano Ronaldo.
The move to Juventus makes sense
Quite frankly, many have become fed up of hearing about the 19-year-old’s next move. The centre-back has been linked with a number of Europe’s biggest clubs, including Barcelona and PSG. However, with the infamous Mino Raiola as his representative, he was always going to join the club that offered the best financial package.
The youngster is reported to be a guy with his head screwed on. Juventus are one of the biggest clubs in the world game. They dominate Serie A season in and season out, while usually reaching the latter stages of the Champions League.
The Italian giants are also more likely to offer the centre-back the opportunity of regular first-team football. He might not get the same opportunity at Barcelona or indeed PSG. The move makes sense all-round.
A coup for Juventus
Despite the overexposure of De Ligt in the last year in the media, Juventus will be pulling off a big coup if they can get this deal over the line. The Dutchman has emerged as the best young centre-back in the European game in the past year.
It is not only his defensive ability that has stood out but also his maturity and his leadership. He plays like a player of 27 or 28, which is a unique quality in one so young. De Ligt is not perfect by any means, he still has aspects of his game that he needs to work on.
However, the raw materials seem to be there for the centre-back to go on and become world-class. He is likely to play for the next decade and a half too, which does not make the fee a crazy one by today’s ridiculous transfer market prices. In fact, the Dutchman could prove to be a bargain by either serving the Bianconeri for the rest of his career or moving on at an even bigger fee in the future.
De Ligt signing should help Juventus achieve objectives
The signing of the highly-rated De Ligt should help Juventus in their objective of winning the Champions League next season. The Bianconeri will kick-off next season near the top of the betting to win the Champions League next season.
The signing of such a promising player will certainly do their chances of winning the competition little harm. The Italian giants comfortably win their domestic title each season, so winning Europe’s elite competition has become their obvious next goal.
To better their European rivals they need to strengthen their squad significantly this summer. The signing of De Ligt is certainly not a bad start. The question is who else can the men from Turin attract this summer, with both Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen and Manchester United’s Paul Pogba both heavily linked with a move to the Italian giants.
With a new boss at the helm in Maurizio Sarri, this summer and next season promise to be fascinating for fans of the Old Lady of Italian football.
Would the signing of Matthijs de Ligt help Juventus win the Champions League?
