Now that we know Dusan Vlahovic will not be a Juventus player next season, the question of who will be leading the line in Turin becomes one of the biggest questions attached to the Bianconeri’s summer mercato.
We know that it’s not just Vlahovic’s future that could very well be away from Turin come the 2026-27 season, with Jonathan David and Loïs Openda still very much rumored to potentially be on the outs — although one much more than the other — if the right kind of offer comes Juve’s way.
That
means Juventus, maybe unsurprisingly, is looking at maybe more than one striker profile that manager Luciano Spalletti has been hoping for — especially now with Vlahovic leaving and out of contract at the end of the month.
One name is not a surprise to anybody in the form of Randal Kolo Muani, who is again a target of the club after unsuccessful attempts to bring him back to Turin last summer and then again during the winter transfer window. According to multiple reports over the last couple of days, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain have repaired some of the bridge we thought might have been totally burned by those previous two attempts, with Kolo Muani still very much keen on coming back to Turin at some point this summer.
The new name is that of Atlético Madrid striker Alexander Sørloth, who has been rumored to potentially leaving the Spanish capital the last couple of transfer windows. According to Sky Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio on Thursday night, Juventus and Altético Madrid have discussed a potential move for Sørloth, who is under contract with the Diego Simeone-coached side until 2028. Atléti are reportedly open to selling Sørloth this summer, and they could very well use the fact they want to bring on-loan winger Nico González back on a permanent (yet discounted) basis as a chance to try and help both sides of the equation.
Spalletti has reportedly given a green light to a Sørloth move, according to Di Marzio. Sørloth currently earns €6 million gross at Atlético Madrid, which is seen as another appealing factor in Juve’s interest in the 30-year-old Norway international.
The big question with the fact that Juventus are now holding talks with Paris Saint-Germain for Kolo Muani and with Atlético Madrid for Sørloth is this: Is it an either/or situation or are they looking to try and get both in this summer knowing that there is bound to be plenty of change in the striker department over the next couple of months?
With the likely financial constraints hanging over the club this summer due to there being no Champions League football next season, it’s hard to really know until we see some sales happening in all likelihood. We don’t know how advanced these talks for both Kolo Muani and Sørloth are considering it’s the first week of June, but they are reportedly talking with both PSG and Atlético Madrid, so there are things happening.
We know what Juventus will get with Kolo Muani — even as he is coming off a very sub-par season with Tottenham Hotspur during their relegation-threatened 2025-26 campaign. With Sørloth, though, he is much more of the big-bodied striker profile that Spalletti wanted to see the club address during the winter transfer window in January that resulted in no striker of that ilk actually being signed.
In 2,825 minutes spanning 54 appearances this past season, Sørloth scored 20 goals in all competitions. He has scored at least 20 goals in all competitions in each of the last three seasons, the previous two with Atléti and the 2023-24 campaign at Villarreal. That is pretty good production for a player that hasn’t always gotten consistent playing time for an Atlético Madrid club that made it to the Champions League semifinals this past season. In his two seasons with Atléti, Sørloth started 20 and 15 games in La Liga, respectively.
