Even with a new CEO in place for all of a week, Dusan Vlahovic contract offers are still yet to be a thing of the past.
You read that right, folks. Just when it looks like the very high-priced Serbian ship has sailed, there is suddenly an unexpected addendum added to what we thought was the final chapter earlier this month.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport on Saturday, Juventus has — maybe somewhat surprisingly to some — a final contract offer to Vlahovic to see if the Serbian striker will bite
on what appears from the outside to be a dwindling number of legitimate options in Europe’s top five leagues. The terms of the deal appear to be this: a one-year contract through 2027 with a base salary of €8 million net plus some potential bonuses. That is about as short-term of a contract as short-term contracts get, and a sign of how new Juventus CEO Giovanni Carnevali may think he’s got some leverage on his side considering the only other potential option for Vlahovic right now seem to be heading to Turkiye to reunite with former Fiorentina manager Vincenzo Italiano at Besiktas.
At this point, we have no idea if Vlahovic and his camp will accept this short of a contract considering he’d be right back in this same situation next spring if he can’t get something worked out with Juventus were he to sign this new (and hopefully) final offer.
One thing that La Gazzetta made clear about this situation: Juventus don’t want this Vlahovic situation to run past the end of June. Basically, if Vlahovic wants to stick around, then he’s got until two Tuesdays from now to either accept this reported offer or head elsewhere for the 2026-27 season. It’s as simple as that.
Or, as La Gazzetta says: “It’s either take it or leave it.”
There’s also this piece of information that GDS tucks into the report of Juve’s one-year contract offer:
Milos, Vlahovic’s father and de facto manager, hasn’t received any significant, concrete interest from Europe’s top clubs so far: Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are dragging their feet, as are Bayern Munich, Chelsea, and Tottenham. Thus, only Turkish presidents have come forward, from Vincenzo Italiano’s Besiktas to Galatasaray, who risk losing both Icardi and Osimhen.
This is telling considering it’s now the third week of June and we’re hearing of Juventus being the only team that is currently out there trying to offer up a contract to Vlahovic. Yes, there’s the new interest from Besiktas and the obvious link to the manager he had when he broke out at Fiorentina and had the best run of his then-young career, but the big clubs that were rumored to be circling around Vlahovic a few weeks or months ago don’t appear to be there now. It’s either because they feel like other players better suit their needs in attack or that Vlahovic’s demands are
In that respect, it’s hard to forget what Juventus Director of Football Strategy Giorgio Chiellini said earlier this month when we thought the club was done with Vlahovic once and for all: “With these figures, he won’t remain in Italy, so it is only fair and legitimate that he is seeking a different type of salary.”
Vlahovic making €8 million net next season would still have him be one of the highest-paid players in Serie A, second behind only Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez. That’s still a lot of money for a player who has yet to score more than 16 goals a season in Serie A in four years. At some point, Juve will walk away — it’s just a matter of when that may happen under the new CEO just as the guy he replaced did 2 1/2 weeks ago.
