:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/16651191/gyi0063324300.0.jpg)
The long, national nightmare that is Felipe Melo still being on Juventus' payroll is no longer an issue. No, really. This isn't a drill. This is the truth, people.
No more loan moves. No more wondering if Beppe Marotta will be able to offload Felipe Melo on a permanent basis because Galatasaray are trying to play hardball and not pay any kind of money other than what it would take — translation: a slim loan fee — to bring the Brazilian midfielder to Turkey for a third straight season.
None of that. Felipe Melo, one of Alessio Secco's biggest transfer blunders in his stint as sporting director filled with them, is no longer a Juventus player.
Juventus' press team have given us all an extremely detailed recap of the transfer dealings.
Juventus Football Club can announce that Brazilian midfielder Felipe Melo de Carvalho has today been sold to Turkish side Galatasaray for an initial fee of €3.75m.
The payment could rise by a further €0.5m should the player achieve certain sporting targets stipulated in the agreement between the two clubs.
Okay, so maybe not. It wasn't quite the thanks that Emanuele Giaccherini got last week, huh.
Melo was one of the last remaining players hanging around from the pre-Antonio Conte days in Turin when Juve became all too familiar with seventh-place finishes. And while Juventus obviously got nothing close to what Secco infamously paid for him after the Confederations Cup in 2009, it's closure. Melo is no longer a Juve player. He's no longer going to be the subject of any kind of talk about him not being able to be sold to some random club you can pick out of a hat because his salary is too high.
That's something that is so good to type. (Hey, take what you can get.)
Congrats, Galatasaray. You get your No. 10 back on a permanent basis.