When you’re on your second loan deal within a six-month span, you know things haven’t exactly gone well for the club that bought you all of a year ago. But that is the reality for João Mário, whose move to Juventus wasn’t all that popular to begin with and it certainly didn’t improve with how little he played during his five months in Turin before the loan cycle began.
After returning to Juve following his loan spell at Bologna, the diminutive fullback/wingback is heading out on loan again, this time
to Fiorentina, the two clubs announced on Monday. It is no surprise to see this happen considering João Mário was very much out of the project the minute he stepped back through the doors at Continassa, and there was old buddy Fabio Paratici to lend a helping hand to allow the 26-year-old summer signing a year ago to try and find more consistent football this coming season.
Fiorentina have an option to buy on top of paying the €1.8 million loan fee. If they are to take up said option, then La Viola would pay €9.5 million next summer and officially take another one of Damien Comolli’s wonder-signings off Juventus’ hands.
Turin, 03 August 2026 – Juventus Football Club S.p.A. announces that an agreement with ACF Fiorentina for the temporary disposal, until 30 June 2027, of the registration rights of the player Joao Mario Neto Lopes has been reached for a consideration of € 1.8 million, payable in a single financial year.
The agreement further envisages the right for Fiorentina to definitively acquire the player’s registration rights for an additional consideration of € 9.5 million, payable in three financial years.
What else is there to say about João Mário? Not a whole hell of a lot considering how little of a contribution he’s made to Juventus since Comolli brought him to Turin last summer. The obvious thing that we all want to see happen is for him to play well at Fiorentina and then Paratici is tempted enough to take up the option to buy.
So let us hope that. And that the Ex Effect doesn’t kick in when Juve face Fiorentina in November.
