OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Juventus sign Mario Lemina outright from Marseille

The opportunities to see Mario Lemina in a Juventus jersey hasn't been all that frequent this season. Part of that is because who is playing in front of him, part of that had to do with his lengthy injury layoff right smack dab in the middle fo the season. But with a deadline approaching to resolve Lemina's future in Turin, something had to happen before the final day of May came and went.

Those opportunities, after Friday's bit of news, look to be a little more fruitful come the future.

Juventus have announced that they have bought the 22-year-old Lemina's contract outright from Marseille for the same €9.5 fee that was agreed upon back in late-August after the Gabon international has spent the past season on loan with the five-time Italian champions. With that, Lemina has signed a four-year contract with the club, tying him to Juventus until 2020.

Here's the official press release from Juventus' public relations department that involves all of the fancy financial talk:

Juventus Football Club S.p.A. announces the exercise of the option right for the definitive acquisition of the player Mario Lemina from Olympique de Marseille SASP. The contract envisages the payment by Juventus of € 9.5 million in four instalments: € 3.5 million within 20 May 2016, € 1.5 million within 30 November 2016, € 1.5 million within 28 February 2017 and € 3 million within 30 July 2017.

The purchase value may increase by € 1 million on achieving given sports performances in the course of the duration of the contract.

The player contract will last until 30 June 2020.

So, there you have it. Some folks thought that maybe Beppe Marotta would swing a deal where Lemina's loan deal is extended another season just to continue that low-risk evaluation process. There's also the line of thinking that maybe, just maybe, this new deal involves the player who went to Marseille on the same day in August, wingback Mauricio Isla, also having his contract made permanent in some kind of swap deal.

But the fact still remains that Lemina is now officially a Juventus player and on a permanent basis. And based on how he has played for the most part in his last handful of appearances, that doesn't seem like too bad of a development.