Juventus have gotten one of their out-of-favor players off the roster—at least for a year.
In a statement, the club announced that striker Loïs Openda has been sent to Olympique Lyon on a dry loan. Lyon will pay a loan fee of €3.5 million.
The transfer amounts to a general audition for Openda, who completely flopped in his first year at Juventus this past season. Openda only scored twice in 34 appearances, in a league game against Roma and a Champions League match against Bodø/Glimt. Despite receiving
praise from Luciano Spalletti about his efforts in training, he had clearly lost the coach’s confidence over the last two months of the season, when only made a single late-game cameo.
There’s no way Juve would’ve made his initial loan permanent if they had the choice, but unfortunately he carried a €42.75 million obligation to purchase him outright at the end of the year. His struggles last year obviously tanked his transfer value, and he’ll seek to rebuild his reputation before Juventus figure out what to do with him next year.
With Openda’s departure, that only leaves Juve with three first-team strikers on the roster: Arkadiusz Milik, who likely isn’t in the team’s plans after his injury saga, Jonathan David, who returned to the team from his World Cup vacation today but similarly struggled a season ago, and teenage prospect Jeff Ekhator. Giovanni Carnevali is going to have to bring in some reinforcements—and soon.
