Rodrigo Bentancur is wanted in Serie A; the 19-year-old Uruguayan midfielder will ultimately leave his current club Boca Juniors and this summer, he almost made it to Milan. He will certainly be a target in the next transfer window too but Juve has already an agreement in place with the Argentine club and therefore remain in pole-position.
 

Juventus has always had an option to take the youngster; this was agreed when Carlos Tevez left the bianconeri to return to Boca in the summer of 2015. Milan entered the race for his signature this summer and tabled a €13 million offer to the Argentine giants before business was brought to an immediate halt when it became clear that President Silvio Berlusconi was about to sell the club to a Chinese consortium. Boca President Angelici built a wall around his star midfielder however as Juventus continued to probe despite placing Axel Witsel at the top of their wanted list. In a bizarre twist, Witsel’s current club Zenit St Petersburg (who were not prepared to lose the Belgian international without finding a replacement) also made enquiries as to the availability of Bentancur and were even prepared to ask the bianconeri for the first refusal on his signature. Juve rejected their advances so for the moment, he stays in Buenos Aires.  

Now Marotta and Paratici are putting together a plan to bring Bentancur to Turin and the option they have to buy him outright up until next April and prevent any other suitors jumping the queue. Juventus only now need to define the terms of payment and then the deal should be concluded next summer. The only thing then left to decide is to whether to keep the player in Turin or consider sending him out on-loan; perhaps he may be used as a pawn in their continued efforts to bring Witsel to the J Stadium.


By Fabrizio Romano. Adapted & translated by Steve MItchell