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With the announcement that Ssebatian Giovinco will be leaving the club he grew up at come the end of the 2014-15 season and heading to Major League Soccer, the questions of "What now?" have already arrived.
Who does Juventus sign to replace Giovinco? Because of course we need to figure it out ASAP, right?
According to the Gazzetta dello Sport, Juventus are looking to replace Giovinco with Sassuolo striker Simone Zaza, who used to be under co-ownership but is now well known to have a buyback clause with the Turin giants. But it wouldn't be this summer, it would be ... this month? Yep, it would be before the end of the January transfer window.
Why would Juventus do such a thing? Glad you asked!
Juventus + Giovinco's crew looking at releasing him early from his contract, letting him join Toronto in March (via @DiMarzio )
— Gabriele Marcotti (@Marcotti) January 21, 2015
Here, in more detail, is what we're talking about when it comes to Giovinco departing Turin this month, via Di Marzio:
Andrea D'Amico is working to have Giovinco join Toronto in time for the start of the MLS season in March. In fact D'Amico is expected to meet with Juventus soon to work on this option. Juventus would save the money they would have to pay Giovinco for rest of the season, and the striker could start the season with his new club.
When the Giovinco-to-MLS deal was announced on Monday, it was pretty much assumed that Super Seba would see out the rest of his Juventus contract, then join Toronto FC some time in July. That's not exactly the ideal scenario for the player you're shelling out millions of dollars to, now is it? I mean, it's not the yo-yo game that New York FC has been through with Frank Lampard an Manchester City, but when you splash cash like TFC did on Giovinco, you'd jump at the chance to have them join as soon as possible.
And that's where Zaza apparently comes in.
Zaza, who has been rumored to coming to Juventus in either January or over the summer throughout the past month, leads Sassuolo in goals this season with seven. He's essentially on the same kind of pace as last season when he found the back of the net 15 times. Not bad for a 23-year-old striker in his two first full Serie A seasons.
Something tells me this isn't the last we've heard of Giovinco going to Toronto in January. Then again, it wouldn't be a Giovinco-related transfer matter unless there was a little bit of drama, right? It comes with the territory, I guess.
