Chelsea join Juventus in race for €25m Serie A star
La Repubblica (via Calciomercato247) say that Pensioners Coach Antonio Conte has asked the board for the 25-year-old.
In fact, Berardi and Conte met during the winter, and scouts have been sent to watch the former Juventus protege on numerous occasions.
Other Serie A clubs - Inter, Roma and Milan especially - are interested in the Sassuolo star, who has scored 51 Serie A goals for the Neroverdi.
This season hasn’t been a happy one for the Italy international, who picked up an injury on Matchday 2 of the season, only to return recently and perform admirably.
Although Juventus have a €25 million option on Berardi, the youngster refused to return to Juventus in the summer of 2015 because he wanted guaranteed starting time, and preferred to remain at Sassuolo.
The Emilians’ president was bullish of late, claiming that “Berardi will stay with us until the end of the season because he is our leader and we want him to be our leader for for many years to come”.
Conte and Berardi’s own relationship has been made more difficult when the former was still Coaching Italy, excluding both Berardi and Lorenzo Insigne from his Italy side because he claims they exaggerated the injuries that kept them out of a qualifying trip to Azerbaijan.
@EdoDalmonte