When all you do is light up the scoresheet during your first couple of games at your new club, you’re going to get the attention of a lot of people. But when Randal Kolo Muani went on a three-game tear where he scored five goals to begin his career at Juventus, it always came under the guise that he is going to be a short-term option for Thiago Motta since he’s only on loan for the second half of the 2024-25 season.
But simply sending Kolo Muani back to Paris in a few months sounds like something that Juve director Cristiano Giuntoli wants to prevent despite the current short-term loan deal that is in place.
Speaking with Sky Sport Italia prior to Tuesday night’s Champions League play-off fixture against PSV Eindhoven, Giuntoli essentially confirmed that Juventus would very much like to keep Kolo Muani around beyond the end of the current season. How that actually gets figured out is very much yet to be seen considering we’re just a couple of weeks into Kolo Muani’s Juventus tenure, but the fact Giuntoli is coming out already and saying the club wants to keep the 26-year-old Frenchman around beyond the conclusion of the current season.
Here are the full quotes from Giuntoli regarding Kolo Muani and his future in Turin.
“We needed to cover some gaps created by injuries, so we had to intervene in defence with three players and with Milik hurt we turned to Kolo Muani too.”
[…]
“We have a good rapport between the clubs and when the transfer window was shut, we already saw that Milik might not be ready in time, so we worked behind the scenes at that time to lay the groundwork and got ahead of the many contenders.
“The agreement we reached with them also created a way of figuring out how we could continue with him in future.”
(Source: Football Italia)
It’s the last sentence in which everybody is rightfully focusing on because it’s Giuntoli saying that Juventus want to keep Kolo Muani beyond June. Considering how Kolo Muani has played since he arrived on loan from Paris Saint-Germain last month, that’s not a surprise at all.
But the main question is: How could Juventus actually pull it off?
If Kolo Muani even comes to close to scoring at the same pace he has began his Juventus career for the rest of the season, there is certainly going to be a market develop for him considering PSG are probably going to be more than happy to try and recoup as much of the €85 million they paid for Kolo Muani just 18 months ago.
For all we know, though, there could very well be a situation with Kolo Muani like Juve reportedly have with Francisco Conceição and his loan deal from Porto where they have the first spot in line to sign him outright. But, at the same time, you have to believe that Juventus’ financial capabilities over the summer and the attached qualification for the Champions League next season will play a big role in just how far Juve can go with trying to either extend Kolo Muani’s stay another season or potentially sign him outright.
