Report: Juventus ‘about to close’ deal for Genoa midfielder Tomas Rincon

Much of Juventus’ central midfield rumor mill has been filled with talk of Axel Witsel — and rightfully so. He’s been the No. 1 midfield target for months now and the guy that pretty much everybody expected to sign with Juventus until the would-be deal for the big Belgian fell apart on the final day of the summer transfer window.

There’s a new name being thrown into the mix.

And apparently he’s a lot closer to joining that everybody’s favorite Belgian with a giant afro.

According to Sky Sport Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio, Juventus are quite close to closing a deal for 28-year-old Genoa midfielder Tomas Rincon. The details of the deal, which would see the total value of the transaction be around €10 million, will include an initial €2 million loan fee with an obligation to buy set between €7-8 million (assumingely over the summer) to make Rincon’s move to Turin a permanent one.

More details of the deal, courtesy of Di Marzio himself:

The competition has been vastly surpassed, namely Roma, the objective for Juve now is to bring the player to Turin before new years eve. Rincon is not the only midfield reinforcement to expect in January however as the arrival of the player would not exclude Axel Witsel, for whom Juventus continue to wait for positive signals from Zenit.

Done before New Year’s Eve, huh? I guess Beppe Marotta and Fabio Paratici have some big plans in store for a night out in Turin with their respective families. Or something like that. Let’s just go with it.

What this has to do with Juve’s pursuit of Witsel may or may not be connected. We don’t know because Beppe hasn’t told us anything on the topic of a Rincon acquisition. And what this means for some other Juventus midfielders — like, I dunno, Hernanes, who was been linked with Genoa a lot during the time of the summer transfer window — may also depend on the club’s acquisition of both Rincon and Witsel.

But getting close to adding Rincon, somebody who was also a target of Roma amongst others, certainly would give Juventus a little more grit in the midfield. He would give Juventus a little more depth in the midfield, that’s for sure, and allow Max Allegri to go with a little more steel off the bench or if he chooses to rotate the squad every now and then.