Reports: Roma join Napoli in the race to sign Juventus defender Martin Cáceres

In case you were wondering if there would be any more signs that Juventus defender Martin Cáceres will be wearing a different jersey next season, well, you won't have to look much further. The latest indications out of Italy entering the weekend were that Cáceres will be signing somewhere else has now seemed to set in even for some of the biggest Cáceres fanboys.

And it's because of things like this:

First it was Roma making the hard push for Martin Caceres, now it's Napoli making the charge for the finish line, looking to receive a commitment for next season's services from the Juventus defender who has an expiring contract. Caceres' agent Daniel Fonseca was spotted in Naples. In the next days there will be a new meeting with Giuntoli to look at the details. At the moment it's a duel between Roma and Napoli, Roma will be resuming talks after the derby and Napoli awaiting the arrival of De Laurentiis to move towards a completed deal.

(Source: Gianluca Di Marzio)

This comes in the aftermath of a Di Marzio report on Thursday that said that Roma had entered the Cáceres acquisition market. Two teams looking for defensive help obviously make sense for a solid defender like Cáceres who isn't going to cost a penny to sign come the summer months.

Cáceres, who has been out ever since early-February after suffering an Achilles injury, clearly has the desire to stay in Italy based on who his representatives are reportedly negotiating with right now. And, based on the fact that he's turning 29 years old in a matter of five days, this could be his final chance to get a contract that is both satisfying in terms of the money he makes, but also has the appropriate amount of years that he sees fit. Knowing his injury history, the chance he has to get one last quality pay day may be this summer — and with two teams that have a bit of money in Roma and Napoli, he can sit back and choose which situation fits him the best.

On the Juventus side of things, the impact is pretty easy to figure out. With Cáceres certainly on the way out, we also get to start thinking of who Juventus might bring in to fill his spot on the roster as either a full-time central defender, a utility man or maybe a combo of both.