Another South American who was signed by Cristiano Giuntoli last summer has officially left Continassa after just one season with Juventus. And a tough one season at that just like the other South American signed by Giuntoli for big money last summer.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement of some of the big 2024 summer window, is it?
First it was Brazilian midfielder Douglas Luiz who departed Turin with
a couple of weeks to go in the 2025 summer transfer window. Now, it’s Argentine winger Nico González, who has signed with Atléitco Madrid on loan with an option to buy come next summer, Juventus announced during Monday’s Deadline Day activity. That option to buy will become an obligation to buy for Atléti if certain conditions are met when it comes to appearances during this new season, which would push the deal to a grand total of €32 million.
Gonzalez, like so many other players who have arrived or left Juve on loan with an option (or obligation) to buy in the last couple of summers, has agreed to a 1+4 contract with his new club, a deal that will run through 2030 if everything goes according to plan.
Here are the official details of the deal, courtesy of Juventus’ press office:
Turin, 1 September 2025 – Juventus Football Club S.p.A. announces that an agreement with Club Atlético de
Madrid for the temporary disposal, until 30 June 2026, of the registration rights of the player Nicolás Iván González has been reached for a consideration of € 1 million. This amount may be increased, during the term of the player’s employment contract, by up to € 1 million upon the achievement of specific sporting objectives.The agreement further entails the obligation for Atlético de Madrid to acquire the player’s registration rights on a permanent basis upon the occurrence of certain conditions during the 2025/2026 football season. The agreed fee for the potential definitive disposal is € 32 million, payable over three financial years.
González, one of the latest examples of how Juventus need to stop handing Fiorentina owner Rocco Commisso giant bags of money during transfer windows, struggled to truly show the same kind of form he did in Florence when he was one of La Viola’s main men the previous couple of seasons. While Douglas Luiz struggled with plenty of injuries and couldn’t simply get to the point of being a regular starter, it wasn’t the same for González.
While he missed two months with injury — he was the second half of the two early subs against RB Leipzig along with Bremer when he suffered his season-ending ACL injury last October — González was ineffective for a large portion of his one season with Juventus. Yes, he was played in an unnatural position on the left wing by Thiago Motta some of the time, but he also just couldn’t hit the heights he did in Fiorentina.
Case in point: González paid just 200 fewer minutes in Serie A a year ago than he did in his last season with Fiorentina. In that final season with La Viola, González scored 12 goals and had two assists. With Juventus, he had just three goals and two assists.
It proved to be one of the big swings and misses by Giuntoli during his final season in charge of constructing the Juventus roster. So you can understand why new Juve general manager Damien Comolli, who took over for Giuntoli earlier this summer, was ready to find González a new club. They did just that on Deadline Day.
