Maybe it is because of the fact that Juventus played their last competitive game all of about six weeks ago, the fact that this summer has been extremely mellow compared to what we saw last year or just the simple matter of how expectations are nowhere near where they were for the previous manager, the Bianconeri starting their 2025-26 season this weekend does not have the same kind of gusto that is coming along with it.
This Sunday night, Juventus are taking to the Allianz Stadium field for their
season opener against Parma.
It’s the start of a new season, but with how congested the footballing calendar has become, it’s sometimes hard to not feel like one season ends and another one just rolls right up behind it.
But in a summer that has seen plenty of changes around Serie A — both in terms of managerial departures and arrivals as well as plenty of talent head out to the riches of the Premier League once again — Juventus’ squad is … relatively the same. We know that Igor Tudor was confirmed as manager prior to Juve’s participation in the Club World Cup. While we’ve heard plenty of rumors about some of last summer’s major pieces of business leaving, the only one to actually have left by the time things kick off against Parma has been Douglas Luiz, who joined Nottingham Forest earlier this week. Names that have been linked with potential exits — Nico González, Lloyd Kelly and, of course, Dusan Vlahovic — are still here with varying expectations of what their roles may be.
Yet, a new season is about to begin.
And with it, it’s still relatively hard to say what the ceiling is for this team — and not in the way in which they make you think they have an unlimited amount of potential because they’ve got so much talent.
Is this a nonplussed kind of feeling about the new season? Yeah, kinda, I guess.
I’m certainly not as jazzed up for the start of this season as I was compared to when Thiago Motta strolled out of the tunnel at the Allianz in that fresh looking suit and proceeded to see his team stroll past Como in the 2024-25 opener. Tudor will be wearing a suit just like Motta was, but he’s certainly not receiving the same kind of hype as the man he replaced back in March.
Maybe it’s better that kind of way. We all remember the preseason hype surrounding Motta and then saw it crash out and go up in smoke all of nine months later. This summer has been more about what Juventus hasn’t been able to do — offload its most expensive players, secure deals for the entirety of the small number of players linked to the club, namely Randal Kolo Muani — rather than even rivaling the incredibly hectic summer from 2024.
We’ll see if it pays off on Sunday night.
Juventus’ opponent at the Allianz this weekend just so happen to be the same Parma side that took points off the Bianconeri in both of their meetings last season. However, this is a Parma that has a new coach — and one that, at 30 years old, is nearly a decade younger than the fella writing this point — and just sold arguably its biggest asset in Giovanni Leoni last week. The former Arsenal assistant — who just so happens to also have spent a short amount of time coaching in Juve’s youth academy — made his official debut as manager last weekend when Parma beat Serie B side Pescara in the opening round of the Coppa Italia. (No, no more Zeman. Sorry, folks.)
We know that how Juve does in their season opener won’t be indicative of how the rest of the campaign will go. There’s no need to look anywhere other than last season for proof of that. But when it comes to Juventus having a very winnable game to try and establish some early-season momentum, you can’t ask for much more than what they have on Sunday night.
Just as long as they avoid what they did against Parma last season, that is.
TEAM NEWS
- While Sunday night’s fixture will not be his first game in charge of Juventus, it will mark the third time in as many years in which the Bianconeri will have somebody different managing their season opener.
- Juventus do have some injuries of note even though it has been a relatively drama-free preseason on that front. The long-term injury list consists of Nicolo Savona (ankle injury suffered at the Club World Cup). Juan Cabal (ACL surgery in November) and Arek Milik (never-ending reasons for not playing).
- Also on the injury list is backup goalkeeper Mattia Perin and midfielder Fabio Miretti. Perin could be back as early as next week against his former club Genoa, while Miretti — if he ends up staying at Juventus and not going out on loan somewhere — is expected to return at some point after the September international break.
- Both of Juventus’ new summer signings, Jonathan David and Joao Mario, are expected to be in the starting lineup against Parma. (We’ll talk about one of these guys in a second or two.)
- Just n case we needed final confirmation, Sunday night will indeed be Gleison Bremer’s return to the Juventus starting lineup, his first official appearance since his ACL injury against RB Leipzig in October.
- In case you’re wondering, the referee for this one will be Matteo Marcenaro. Remember him? You should! He was the referee during the 2-2 draw with Salernitana in which we thought Juventus had one it super late but their game-winning goal was called offside even though Antonio Candreva was keeping everybody onside. Good times, right?
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
New season. New striker up front. The highest-paid player in Serie A is still around, so that technically doesn’t mean a new No. 9 just yet, but it’s just a matter of time before that actually happens.
So, yeah. Let’s talk about Canada. Or at least Juventus’ new Canadian frontman.
As mentioned, Jonathan David is almost certain to start up top as Juventus’ No. 9 in Tudor’s 3-4-2-1 against Parma on Sunday night even though he won’t be the club’s official No. 9 jersey-wise this season. It’s the position in which we’ve all expected him to take over since the day he signed no matter what somebody like Vlahovic might be up to when the 2025-26 season began. (Hint: he’s still here.)
Sunday night will mark a long time coming for David, who had reportedly been interested in signing with Juventus for the better part of the past 12 months. He got his move done in early July, and now it’s time to do exactly what he did in France — if not potentially more.
Score goals.
Score lots of goals.
And maybe get a decent amount of assists, too.
When it comes to David, we’ve already seen in small glimpses the impact he can have on a team’s attack during the preseason friendlies he participated in. We’ve seen the way he could develop something with Kenan Yildiz. We’ve seen the ability to use his agility and mobility to his advantage so that he’s also able to create chances for teammates rather than essentially being a one-trick pony and isolated up front. There just seems to be more possibilities for how Juve may be able to hurt teams in the final third now compared to a few months ago when Vlahovic was still getting big minutes.
Will he scored an overhead kick every time out like he did in Juve’s final friendly against Atalanta last weekend? Of course not. But David’s talent is obvious — and now he gets the chance to finally show it in Turin after so much waiting.
MATCH INFO
When: Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025.
Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 8:45 p.m. in Italy and the Central European time zone, 7:45 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 2:45 p.m. Eastern time, 11:45 a.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: CBS Sports Network (United States); TLN (Canada); TNT Sports 1 (United Kingdom).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+, DAZN USA, Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada; Amazon Prime Video; Fubo Sports Network Canada (Canada); DAZN UK (United Kingdom); DAZN Italia, Sky Go Italia (Italy).
Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Twitter. If you haven’t already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.
