Juventus does not intend to say goodbye to Matthijs de Ligt after two seasons. According to the Saturday edition of Tuttosport the Italian top club has declined formal offers from Barcelona and Chelsea for the 21-year-old defender and the Dutch international ‘in the past ten days’. The daily newspaper from Turin writes that De Ligt “is absolutely not for sale” and De Ligt itself would not require a transfer.
Ajax and Juventus reached an agreement in 2019 on a transfer fee of 75 million euros for De Ligt, who signed a contract for five seasons. Ajax did not receive the transfer fee in one go, but will receive it spread over five years. De Ligt was passed through la Vecchia Signora hailed as the intended successor to Giorgio Chiellini in the short term, but a serious injury to the veteran meant that the Dutchman got a starting place faster than expected.
De Ligt came to 39 games in all competitions for Juventus in his first season and captured both the national title and the Supercoppa. In this football year, the counter of the Dutchman is still at 31 games, partly because he missed the necessary duels in January due to a shoulder injury, the associated surgery and the corona virus. After nine national titles in a row, Juventus had to leave the honor to Internazionale this football year.
In the first half of 2019, Barcelona was already very interested in De Ligt, but the board at the time maintained a difficult relationship with agent Mino Raiola and the asking price of Ajax also turned out to be too great an obstacle. De Ligt, in turn, also had a preference for Juventus.
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