A couple of Januarys ago, Juventus struck a deal for one of Italy’s up-and-coming talents, a teenage winger who was impressing in Serie B despite his relative youth. While never actually wearing the Juventus jersey over the course of the next two-plus years before being sold outright to Bologna, Riccardo Orsolini showed enough development to put his name on the map when it came to the Italian national team.
Two-and-a-half years after Juventus originally signed Orsolini from Ascoli for a tidy €6 million (plus bonuses), could they be in line for a reunion of sorts?
It seems like Juve’s front office have the option to do so if they so please.
According to Goal Italia’s Romeo Agresti, Juventus have retained its option to potentially re-sign the now-22-year-old Oroslini, who will be celebrating a birthday in a couple of weeks. Orsolini, who has become quite the force for Sinisa Mihajlovic over the last season and a half, cost Bologna a total of €15 million this past summer when they made his loan deal a permanent one as was pretty much expected.
If Juventus want to bring Orsolini back to the first Serie A club to own his rights, it will cost the following:
- €22.5 million if done so this coming summer
- €30 million if done so in the summer of 2021
#Juventus, canale preferenziale per #Orsolini: 22,5 milioni di spesa in caso di acquisto nell’estate 2020; 30 milioni per l’estate 2021
— Romeo Agresti (@romeoagresti) January 8, 2020
https://t.co/EWgBd8KFVX
@GoalItalia
This is interesting for one rather obvious reason: Juventus’ attack is not young, and it very much lacks explosiveness at the winger position outside of Douglas Costa. (Is Federico Bernardeschi still a winger these days? He hasn’t played there with Juventus in months, so I dunno what to think about all of that.)
What Orsolini has done over the last 12 months or so for Bologna is impressive regardless of what team it’s for, but especially so considering that he’s in his early 20s and starting to truly fulfill the potential that Juventus obviously saw in him during his late-teenage years.
Case in point: Orsolini has scored five goals and dished out four assists in 18 Serie A games (16 starts) so far this season, both of which are tops on the team.
Obviously it’s still to be determined if Juventus will actually take up one of these options to re-acquire Orsolini over the next two summers. But the fact that they still have the option to do so and haven’t just punted on another talented young player like they have done a handful of times in the past couple of years must mean they’re at least interested in bringing him in the attack continues to age.