Juventus Make £58.3m Bid for Matthijs de Ligt as Details Over Payment & Contract Are Revealed
Serie A champions Juventus have made a formal £58.3m bid for Ajax captain Matthijs de Ligt and showed a £10.7m-a-season contract to the player's agent, Mino Raiola.
The 19-year-old centre-back is one of the most coveted players in Europe after not only breaking through in Amsterdam, but also becoming a star of last season's Champions League campaign and establishing himself alongside Virgil van Dijk at international level.
De Ligt has been targeted most notably by three European giants this summer including Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, but it's Italian champions Juventus who have now made a formal approach to sign him ahead of the new season.
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Sky in Italy (via Sky Sports) claim that the Bianconeri have made an initial £49.3m offer to sign the teenage defender this summer, with a further £9m being available through performance-based add-ons.
Juventus are still some way off matching Ajax's reported £67.3m (€75m) asking price, while Paris Saint-Germain have already agreed to match the fee with officials in Amsterdam.
Juve are looking to play hardball with Ajax as they believe De Ligt has his heart set on a move to Turin, but having already made close to £45m net this summer the Dutch champions are unlikely to budge too much on their valuation.
Dutch outlet AD add that Ajax are now expecting De Ligt to return for the start of pre-season on Monday, even though they've spent the majority of this year looking ahead to the 2019/20 campaign without the teenager in their plans.
De Ligt's notorious super-agent Raiola has also been shown details of the £10.7m-a-season contract which is on offer at Juventus.
While talks with Ajax look set to roll on for the foreseeable future, Juventus are on the cusp of officially announcing the return of legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.
The former Italy international will re-join the club after a brief spell with Paris Saint-Germain, where he's expected to act largely as a back up to Poland international Wojciech Szczęsny as well as taking up responsibilities off the pitch.
