Over the past week or so, Juventus has tried to add a certain profile of striker to their attacking ranks. First there was the attempt to try and sign Jean-Philippe Mateta, but Crystal Palace’s demands proved to be way too much for a Juve front office that is extremely limited when it comes to funds at the moment. Then there was the pivot to Youssef En-Nesyri, who decided against moving to Juve on loan simply because of how the deal was formulated even though said deal had been agreed upon with Fenerbahce.
That has resulted in Juventus doing a little bit of surveying regarding the potential availability of a name we talked a lot about over the summer.
According to Fabrizio Romano on his YouTube channel and SportItalia’s Alfredo Pedulla, Juventus’ front office reached out to Randal Kolo Muani’s representatives on Monday, trying to measure the possibility of him being the striker they potentially sign during the final week of the winter transfer window. Kolo Muani, currently on a season-long loan deal at Tottenham after his preferred move to Juventus didn’t happen over the summer, has struggled to settle into life in the Premier League this season, and is viewed as one of the many Spurs transfers that haven’t lived up to the billing. A move for Kolo Muani was something that then-general manager and current CEO Damien Comolli spent a whole lot of time trying to get done last summer, but ultimately Paris Saint-Germain’s high demands and Juventus’ firm stance of not extending their maximum price is what saw the deal never take place.
That mean Kolo Muani had to go somewhere other than where he wanted to play during the 2025-26 season (and beyond) — a move that hasn’t worked out for both the player, the club that signed him and the club that was hoping to offload him.
Since the original reporting, Romeo Agresti has also confirmed Juventus’ survey about Kolo Muani’s availability.
As much as Juventus would love to add a player they already know in the form of Kolo Muani this month, there are two very large hurdles that would have to be cleared for it to even become somewhat possible:
- Tottenham and under-fire manager Thomas Frank don’t want to see any more players leave during the winter window as they deal with a host of injuries and their usual Spurs-y struggles.
- The relationship between Juventus and PSG is pretty much non-existent after the summer saga involving Kolo Muani. That bridge is very badly burned, if not all after some of the comments that were made in the press as negotiations between the two clubs pretty much fizzled out and Kolo Muani thus ended up at Tottenham.
As was very well established over the summer, Kolo Muani was set on returning to Juventus no matter how that deal was formulated. The short-term loan deal that saw him arrive in Turin last January didn’t have any sort of buy clause worked into it, with Juventus hoping to take advantage of the player’s very clear desire to stay at the club following PSG manager Luis Enrique burying him on the bench for the first half of the Parisian’s 2024-25 campaign.
For what felt like the entire summer transfer window, Juventus and PSG talked … and talked … and talked. But nothing came about. PSG tried to take advantage of Juventus basically going all-in on trying to secure Kolo Muani’s services beyond the Club World Cup, but their financial demands were clearly something Comolli was not going to pay no matter what they wanted. It felt like every time a deal might get close, PSG’s price would suddenly go up a couple more million, thus creating a situation where Juventus would have had to seriously strained their budget as they also struggled to offload Dusan Vlahovic and his massive €12 million net salary.
A deal for Kolo Muani feels pretty unlikely at this point of the January window. But the club clearly still has some lingering desires to have him be part of this squad. And with the passing time, at least one thing is easy to figure out: the price PSG wanted seven or eight months isn’t going to be the same kind of price now — and Juve know it.
