When rumors first started a few weeks ago that Juventus were preparing yet another contract extension (and raise) for Kenan Yildiz, one of the biggest reasons was to try and prevent the young No. 10 from being tempted by the riches of the Premier League.
While that contract extension has yet to be signed, here is an example as to why.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday, Juventus have rebuffed Chelsea’s latest attempt to sign every young attacking talent in the world after the Club World Cup champs offered up a whole lot of money to try and bring Yildiz to London. While Gazzetta didn’t give us an exact number when it comes to the price tag in which Chelsea offered up to Yildiz, they say that it was “at least €65-€68 million” — which, considering Yildiz was signed for very little as a teenager from Bayern Munich in the summer of 2022, would be a massive profit for the biggest asset Juventus currently has on its roster.
Happy weekend, right?
It’s the second day of preseason training and suddenly we have to wonder if Chelsea will come in with an even bigger bid for Yildiz and if Juve will again tell them to kick rocks.
Now, let’s just go ahead and assume that this number was around €69 million (nice) or so. For all of the youth players that Juventus have sold over the last few summers — and, yeah, we know there’s been a lot of them for prices we probably don’t agree much with — this would absolutely take the cake. It could be the answer to a lot of the financial ills that currently are going on at the club. Maybe not to the same extend that the sale of Paul Pogba did when he joined Manchester United for a then-world-record fee a decade ago, but it would be a huge influx of money for a club that is still struggling to avoid massive losses.
But this is also a huge reason why Juventus want to lock in Yildiz to an even longer contract than they already have.
If the rumors of another contract extension come to be true — and there’s no reason to think they won’t be considering how important Yildiz has become to Juve’s success over the last year and a half — then it will, in theory, mean they’re even more committed to Yildiz than they already are. Yildiz was earning around €300,000 when he signed his first contract extension upon his promotion to the senior team in 2023. That salary was bumped up to seven figures and around €1 million when he signed his new deal ahead of last season and his debut as Juventus’ new No. 10. This new contract extension that Juve are reportedly wanting to get done before the 2025-26 campaign kicks off next month would potentially see him get a salary as high as €4 million net.
And as long as Juventus feel like they’re able to say no to big-money offers for Yildiz — let’s face it, you know more are going to happen whether it’s Chelsea or somebody else — then it will tell you that not every decision at the club these days is going to be driven by the bottom line.
