Juventus Close in on Matthijs de Ligt After Defender Visits Turin on International Duty

Juventus will look to step up their interest in Ajax wonderkid Matthijs de Ligt this summer after the teenage centre back visited Turin while on international duty with the Netherlands, according to reports.

The 18-year-old was wart of Ronald Koeman's squad that snatched a 1-1 draw against Italy on Monday, with defensive partner Nathan Ake scoring a late goal to spare the Netherlands' blushes at Juventus Stadium.

Claudio Villa/GettyImages

De Ligt even spoke to the media after game and admitted that it was "an honour" to be the subject of links with a permanent move to Turin.

"Of course it’s an honour to be linked with such a big club, but it’s important for me to play as normal and not think about it," de Ligt said, quoted by Football Italia.

“The stadium? Today was a national team match and I was playing away from home, so I don’t know how it would be playing as the home team.

“It’s a wonderful stadium though, and Turin is a beautiful city too.

“Juventus is a club with great history and above all many trophies in their cabinet, as well as many excellent players."

Claudio Villa/GettyImages

But Juventus are reluctant to go all out and sign de Ligt at this moment as they are still trying to bring three other players to the club this summer, Gianluca Di Marzio explains.

The Bianconeri are still way off Manchester United's €20m valuation for Matteo Darmian despite previously appearing to have the deal all wrapped up.

Juve are also looking to secure the signings of Emre Can and Mattia Perin.

The former will become a free agent next month and he is able to complete a move to Turin, something which has been rumoured for the best part of a year, but there have been some complications in getting a deal over the line in recent weeks.

Perin, on the other hand, will almost certainly put pen to paper on a five-year contract with the Serie A giants. The 25-year-old is expected to leave Genoa for €15m this summer and the deal could be announced as early as Thursday.