Marc-Oliver Kempf's agent says why the player rejected Juventus this summer

Marc-Oliver Kempf, an 18-year-old German defender who plays his football for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga, was one of the young prospects linked with Juventus during the summer transfer window. There were days where the move seemed like a certainty, only thing keeping it from becoming official was a few minor details being sorted out. But as the hours became smaller and smaller, the proposed deal to bring the teenager to Italy fizzled and never happened.

Turns out, according to Kempf's agent Mino Grillo, there was actually a little more to it than just simply dotting I's and crossing T's on a player's contract.

"It was a long negotiation which was only unblocked on Saturday. Juve, who beat Inter and Borussia Dortmund for him, were going to pay to get him on loan, with an option to buy him outright.

"Juve told him that he would be part of the first team squad and the Primavera side. But he rejected because he has the guarantee of playing more League games in Germany than in Italy where there is resistance in fielding youngsters.

"Then there is the fact that the Bundesliga is now worth more than Serie A.

"Nevertheless, the relationship between the two clubs remains good and I'm certain that negotiations could start again in January and the boy could change his mind."

(Source: Football Italia)

While talks broke down between the player and club during the past week or so, the last part of the above quotes is a little telling. I know agent speak is a pretty bad thing to totally believe, but it's not like he's saying the thing is totally dead in the water and Juventus need to move on to somebody else. You can point to the quote about Italian teams not giving youngsters enough playing time, and that would be a valid point. There are plenty of young players who developed in Italy who know a thing or two about their parent clubs not giving them much of a chance right away.

But if the agent is saying things could change in January, then things could change in January. It's not like the agent came out and slammed the Juve management for how they handled negotiations or anything like to the contrary So there's that, which is nice.