Giovanni Carnevali and the rest of the Juventus front office probably did not expect to be forced to dip into the free agent market to sign a new backup goalkeeper in the first few days of the September/October international break this season. But, that is the reality facing the Bianconeri higher-ups right now because of the backup goalkeeper they signed just a few weeks ago, Kamil Grabara, sustained a torn ACL in training last weekend.
It appears their new backup goalkeeper is in sight.
According
to reports from Sky Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio and Italian journalist Matteo Moretto, Juventus are getting close to bringing back an old friend to serve as the backup goalkeeper in Turin a decade after he first did such. That old friend is Norberto Neto, or just Neto, who is reportedly closing in on a return to Juventus following playing at five different clubs the past decade. Neto spent last season at Botafogo, but has been a free agent since the beginning of July after his contract expired.
Neto, now 37 years old, would arrive on a short-term contract with contacts between the two sides currently ongoing as we sit here in the first couple of days of the first international break this season, according to Di Marzio.
The backup goalkeeper to Gianluigi Buffon during two title-winning seasons in 2016 and 2017, Neto has since played in Spain and then England before returning to his homeland of Brazil in 2025. Juventus originally signed Neto in the summer of 2015 to replace Marco Storari as Buffon’s backup after he spent two years with Fiorentina.
Now, a decade later, Neto appears like he’s the top choice to take over for Grabara.
Grabara will almost certainly be out for the rest of the 2026-27, putting an abrupt end to a situation in which both him and Guglielmo Vicario have arrived on loan deals this summer and were essentially on one-year prove it auditions to try and secure a future in Turin.
Neto was amongst the first names to be linked to Juventus following Grabara’s injury. Since then, he has really been the only consistent name mentioned — which likely speaks to his availability and openness to moving back to a club he knows well already, albeit in a much different state of play compared to his first stint.
