For so much of the summer, the expectation was that the new striker that Juventus signed following the arrival of Jonathan David would be the Frenchman who spent the second half of last season on loan. Despite all the twists and turns, a deal for Randal Kolo Muani was expected to be one of the final pieces of business Juve completed during the summer transfer window.
Until new Juve general manager Damien Comolli simply got tired of dealing with Paris Saint-Germain.
It caused a last-minute audible —
and for Kolo Muani to suddenly find himself a different club to sign for on loan despite basically holding out for Juventus as long as he possibly could have.
That audible has turned out to be RB Leipzig striker Loïs Openda, who has arrived on a season-long loan deal with an option to buy next summer, Juventus officially announced just after the close of the summer transfer window on Monday night. Juventus have the option to buy the 25-year-old Openda come next summer, with the total package of the deal having a total price upward of €45 million. Openda will reportedly earn €4.2 million net at Juventus and has agreed to the typical 1+4 contract length that players who arrive on these kinds of deals sign.
Here are the official details of the deal, courtesy of the Juventus press office:
Turin, 1 September 2025 – Juventus Football Club S.p.A. announces that an agreement with RB Leipzig for the temporary acquisition, until 30 June 2026, of the registration rights of the player Ikoma-Loïs Openda has been reached for a consideration of € 3.3 million. Furthermore, bonuses up to a maximum of € 0.8 million are envisaged upon the achievement of further performance objectives.
The agreement further entails the obligation for Juventus to definitely acquire the player’s registrations rights, subject to the achievement of certain sporting objective during the season 2025/2026. The agreed consideration for the definitive acquisition is € 40.6 million, payable in four financial years, with additional costs up to € 1.7 million.
Openda arrived in the Bundesliga two years ago, with RB Leipzig reportedly paying close to €50 million to secure his services from Ligue 1 side Lens. In 69 league appearances for Leipzig, Openda recorded 33 goals and 12 assists, although a large number of both those totals came during his big-time debut season in Germany. During a turbulent 2024-25 campaign for RB Leipzig, Openda managed nine goals and five assists domestically in 33 appearances (2,453 minutes).
With the addition of Edon Zhegrova and now Openda on Deadline Day, Juventus can say they officially have two players to plug in at each of the attacking three positions in Igor Tudor’s 3-4-2-1 formation. It’s that kind of depth that Juventus tried to achieve last season but never actually had much of the time due to injuries — which, as we all know, is a big reason why Kolo Muani was signed in January in the first place.
Once the hopes of getting something done to bring Kolo Muani back fizzled, Comolli acted quick to shift his focus to Openda, who Juve first reportedly checked in on a couple of weeks ago before truly kicking things into gear this past weekend. Now he joins a re-worked Juve attack that feels a lot more dynamic and athletic than it did a season ago. We’ll see if that proves to be true, but it definitely suits the way Tudor wants to play.
