For some random reason, starting our annual ratings series for the 2025-26 season with a quote from Tony Soprano feels rather appropriate. It is from one of the final episodes of the series, as Tony and Paulie Walnuts are sitting at a table in Florida having dinner with some friends (old and new).
As Paulie is leading the charge of reminiscing about the past, Tony clearly ain’t a fan of it. When asked what’s wrong by their friend Beansie, Tony replies with a very blunt quote: “It’s because ‘remember
when’ is the lowest form of conversation.”
Well, then I guess I’m about to upset you right now, T, but I have to say it: Remember when Juventus’ goalkeeper position was the least of our worries? Not just when the GOAT of goalkeepers was there for nearly two decades, but they guy who immediately succeeded him as Juventus’ starter was pretty damn reliable, too? Or when those previous goalkeepers made a mistake every so often (or even a less frequently than that), it wasn’t something you would be seriously worried about?
Ah, that seems so long ago. When in actuality it was just two years back.
You see, the 2025-26 season was not a good one for Juve’s two goalkeepers, Michele Di Gregorio and Mattia Perin. This was not a repeat of last season when the goalkeeper situation in Turin looked like a much rosier deal. Not even close, really. Instead, Juve now head into a summer involving plenty of uncertainty very much in need of a new starter in goal thanks to Di Gregorio’s mistake-filled season. Perin, who nearly left the club in January to return to his boyhood club of Genoa only to see it blocked by Juve management, could very well be on the way out, too.
And you would totally understand why.
There were a lot of things that went wrong for Juventus this season that resulted in them failing to qualify for the Champions League, but maybe one of the more surprising things was that the constant issues in goal that were impossible to shake. The constant threat — and subsequent realization — that the first shot on goal by an opponent would turn into an actual goal. The constant threat of Di Gregorio leaving his near post exposed. Or just the simple fear of Di Gregorio not stopping a very savable kind of shot from an opponent.
That’s not what you want from one of your goalkeepers, let alone your starter.
But that is what Juventus (and us supporters) saw for much of this season — and it resulted in a late-season change in goal by Luciano Spalletti that was only reversed due to the backup keeper, Perin, suddenly heading back to the bench because of an injury.
It wasn’t good enough for a club that wanted to finish in the top four. And it certainly wasn’t good enough — or anything close to that — compared to what we as Juventus supporters have become very accustomed to in goal.
Michele Di Gregorio — 4.5
Coming off how Di Gregorio played in the second half of last season, I was more than ready — and certainly hoping — to see him take a jump in the 2025-26 campaign that put him on the cusp of being a regular with the Italian national team.
Boy, I was wrong.
I was very, very wrong.
As much as I wanted to believe in Di Gregorio and how strong he finished last season — I still think back to those final few months and how some of his saves were ones that kept the result in place or something worse from happening — would carry over, it didn’t. It really didn’t. The Di Gregorio that was hampered by mistakes in the first half of the 2024-25 campaign was even more of a consistent presence a year later.
Di Gregorio lost his job in March because his mistakes just became too much for Spalletti to consistently deal with and were costing Juventus points. And only after an emotional return when Perin got injured, those same types of mistakes returned to the forefront down the stretch, cost Juventus even more points and ultimately Champions League qualification.
The same guy who was the Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year three seasons ago with Monza is not the same goalkeeper that we saw for much of this campaign. The same guy who made highlight-reel saves time and time again to save Juventus’ backside in the second half of last season was letting in the first shot on target a whopping 10 times under Spalletti alone.
Why?
Many will say a mid- or lower-table club like Monza was at the time that he burst onto the scene is his true level. Outside of the second-half performances he had in goal last season, that looks to be the case. Di Gregorio can be a good shot stopper, the problem is that he’s now 29 years old and still battling inconsistent ways in a Juventus jersey. For any club that has aspirations of being in the Champions League and routinely finishing in the top four, you can’t have a goalkeeper who consistently struggles and costs you more than just a couple of points here and there in the way Di Gregorio did over the course of the 2025-26 season.
It’s as simple as that.
The funny thing is, a lot of Di Gregorio’s counting stats are essentially around the same numbers as they were last season when he closed the 2024-25 campaign incredibly strong. His save percentage this season (71.8%) was not all that far off from what he did during his first year in Turin (72.7%). His goals against per 90 this season (0.85) was actually lower than it was a year ago (0.97), albeit with a little bit more of a 300-minute differential.
But all those mistakes, man. The only number that matters is the amount of points it cost Juventus.
With no Champions League next season, it’s hard to know if Juventus will be able to ultimately attract a goalkeeper like Alisson Becker as the new starter in goal no matter what the reports may say. But it’s pretty easy to see that Juve can’t keep going on with Di Gregorio as their starting goalkeeper. He’s become too much of a liability over the course this season and he didn’t show many signs of snapping out of this extended dip in form.
Or, maybe, this is just the goalkeeper that he is.
It’s a shame because he is a likable guy who is easy to root for knowing even a little bit about his story. He’s the kind of underdog who bided his time that you want to see succeed after getting a big move to a club following years in the lower division on loan in his early 20s. But Juventus need a much more consistent presence — in a good kind of way — as their starting goalkeeper, and Di Gregorio just hasn’t proven to be that.
Mattia Perin — 5.5
It was an interesting season for the 33-year-old Perin, who has — checks notes — been at Juventus for nearly a decade now. And it’s not just because Perin was suddenly Juve’s starting goalkeeper for about a month before an injury suddenly sidelined him right when it looked like the job was going to be his the rest of the season.
Perin, in some ways, had the same kind of season Di Gregorio did, but just not on the same kind of scale.
For what feels like the first time during his Juventus career, Perin wasn’t the stabilizing force that he has basically always been. Those mistakes we talked about with Di Gregorio? They were there with Perin, too — and they cost Juventus points, too.
Was it unfortunate that he got hurt late in the season and suddenly lost his newfound starting job to Di Gregorio as a result? Yes, of course, but it wasn’t a case where he was playing so well that he was going to simply reclaim it when he was healthy again. Should he have? Well, in hindsight, there’s a very good argument there with how Di Gregorio’s mistakes cost Juventus in multiple ways over the course of the final month of the season.
But, at 33 years old, Perin shouldn’t be in a position where he’s having to bail Juventus out because their starter isn’t getting the job done. He’s perfectly OK as a backup keeper at a big club — or fallen giant in Juve’s case — at this stage of his career and him staying in that role next season seems like an acceptable development. He’s not at the level that he once was where there’s an overwhelming confidence that he can be Juve’s starter for an extended period of time — or basically outside of the Coppa Italia — if the call came to make that happen.
He showed us that this season — especially later on in the year when he wasn’t exactly as reliable as he once was.
And that is rather unfortunate because Juve needed a stabilizing presence in goal as Di Gregorio struggled over and over again to find any sort of consistency. Perin just couldn’t make that happen.
Carlo Pinsoglio — s/v
It’s the best job in the world, folks.
No matter how Juventus are playing or where they are in the standings, it is the best job in the world.
I know, I know … we will say it every single year until Pinsoglio retires and probably goes to hang out with the Ultras in the curva because he is One Of Us. But we know Pinso will be around for at least one more season because he signed a contract extension back in late February that will keep him at the club through 2027.
Because Juventus’ Champions League qualification hopes went down the wire again this season, we didn’t get our usual lone Pinso appearance during the final game of the year. It’s unfortunate if only because it’s fun to see him screaming his head off on the field for 15-20 minutes and basically bringing his jovial self onto the field with a giant grin on his face. It’s just something that makes you smile — that is who Pinsoglio is at his core.
But it’s also telling of Juventus’ current goalkeeper situation that Pinsoglio looks to be the only one of the three who is most likely to still be on the roster at the start of the 2026-27 season. The man does have job security and is pretty much Juventus’ third keeper for as long as he wants to be. That is a good life indeed.
