In the coming hours, Juventus will formalize one of the strangest incoming transfers of the decade, the acquisition of Tiago Djalo from LOSC Lille. The Portuguese defender is expected in Turin in the first part of the week, between Tuesday and Wednesday. It’s a curious move that suggests just how burdened are Juventus’ finances. Djalo is still injured, undergoing rehabilitation for his cruciate ligament injury sustained in March 2023. The boy whose roots are in Guinea-Bissau hasn’t played in ten months, and doesn’t cost much – but Juventus still needed to wait for the bank’s green light to be able to afford his arrival. It’s grim for the club that believes to be among the world’s royalty. But let’s leave Zebre’s financial woes aside for the moment.Tiago Djalo – Welcome To Juventus ⚪️⚫️ [Official]Likes + Shares appreciated ❤️ pic.twitter.com/sNOrQZSFLn— RBComps 🇬🇧🇻🇪 (@rbcomps_) January 14, 2024 The 23-year-old former youth Portugal international has had an unusual career path so far. After his schoolboy days, he joined Sporting CP in his homeland and showed a lot of promise. He played for the reserve team and knocked on the first team’s door. However, with his contract only having six months left to run, AC Milan swooped in and signed him in a cut-price deal in January 2019. Six months later, Milan sold him to LOSC Lille for around $5 million of profit. In France, he blossomed playing alongside his compatriot Jose Fonte, who captained Les Dogues on the road to that famous Ligue 1 title win in the 2020/21 season. In total, Djalo made 93 appearances for the French club.The green light for Juventus comes thanks to the sum received from Dragusin’s transfer to Tottenham (Juventus had reserved a 20% share on the player’s resale by Genoa) and the sale of Ranocchia to Palermo (an agreement has been reached and he will undergo medical examinations in Turin tomorrow before moving to Sicily). The liquidity index in the budget will provide a margin to close the deal based on an immediate payment of $4 million and an additional amount in bonuses tied to objectives that the player can achieve in the future.##NAJAVA_MECA_7796426##With Djalo’s arrival, Juventus plan well in advance for the post-Alex Sandro era, considering that the Brazilian’s contract will expire in June. The former Lille defender is coming off a long period of absence (since March) caused by a ruptured cruciate ligament in his right knee. For this reason, before making a definitive decision on managing the player in the second half of the season, he will be carefully evaluated at Continassa.Good luck to the Guinea-Bissau son – and good luck to whoever is in charge of balancing Juventus’ books in the coming months.
