As Juventus announced their squad for the Club World Cup, one of the notable inclusions was that of Francisco Conceição. Not because he doesn’t deserve to be a Juve player based solely on his talents, but mostly because of the situation in which he is still at the club, with his loan from Porto being extended a couple more weeks to accommodate the tournament’s timing on the calendar.
But there was also this: Depending on the outlet you read over the last few weeks, Juventus either wanted to keep Conceição or he was heading back to Porto with a future club to be determined.
Well, it looks like now we’re very much swinging back toward the “Juventus want to keep Conceição” side of things.
According to Sky Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio on Monday night, Juventus have submitted their first bid to try and sign Conceição outright this summer after he spent the 2024-25 season on loan in Turin. It was, however, rejected by Porto, with the Portuguese giants very much not up to par even though we don’t know how much Juventus’ offer actually was as part of the information Di Marzio has thrown out there. The only part we do know is that Juventus’ offer was under €30 million — a number that has been thrown out there as a potential release clause figure but only available to activate as part of the loan deal that saw Conceição sign with Juve last summer.
This biggest thing to take out of this is two-fold:
- The two sides are talking and trying to strike some sort of deal.
- It’s a clear that with these talks Juventus do want to keep Conceição and will try to sign him outright after so many rumors to the contrary over the last couple of months.
Conceição’s release clause reportedly expires next month, and that is something Juventus either want to avoid spending money on or trying to see just how much of a potential discount they can get. Just how effective that will be against a club like Porto who has a reputation for being very good when it comes to these types of negotiations remains to be seen, but Juventus are in talks to sign Conceição outright.
It was not looking so great for Conceição’s potential future in Turin during the beginning of Igor Tudor’s tenure as Juventus’ interim manager — playing time was very limited, and even when he did play it was as a second-half sub for one of Juve’s other attacking players. But clearly something changed and either Conceição has gotten back into Tudor’s good graces or simply shown the ability to adapt to a role that is different than that of how Thiago Motta used him.
So now we get to wait to see what Juventus’ next offer will be and if Porto will either kick it to the curb like this first one or if we’re any closer to seeing Conceição signed outright.
