Regardless of his future with Juventus, Medhi Benatia likely won’t be returning to Bayern Munich

Medhi Benatia finds himself in the kind of situation like a lot of Juventus signings since Beppe Marotta took charge of the club’s transfer dealings. He’s currently on loan, and he subsequently has an option to buy. It’s why we call them a Beppe Marotta Special, and it’s something that we’ve come to expect Juventus to do just about every summer.

Where does Benatia fit in? Well, seems like one of the ends of the equation might already be figured out.

Like the title says, regardless of his future with Juventus beyond the 2016-17 season, Benatia’s future with the club that still owns his contract, Bayern Munich, looks anything but certain. According to German outlet Kicker, Bayern plan to terminate Benatia’s contract if he doesn’t see his option to buy picked up by Juventus come the weeks before the summer transfer window.

The reasoning for it is simple — and we’ll let our friends over at Bavarian Football Works take it from here...

Benatia is under contract with Bayern through the summer of 2019. With Niklas Süle joining Bayern this summer from Hoffenheim, there’s really no need for Benatia on the roster past this summer.

Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Juventus’ option — and that’s an actual option, not a mandatory option to buy — to make Benatia’s deal a permanent one is for €17 million, per the details of his transfer to Turin this past summer. Has Benatia done enough to give Juventus reason to spend that much on a defender that will likely be in the same role next season as he is right now? I’m not so sure. It’s not like the development and quality of Daniele Rugani has made things that much easier to get playing time, too, which means Benatia could very well be one of the most expensive fifth-choice centerbacks that there is in Europe these days.

There’s still plenty of time to evaluate Benatia as somebody Juventus wants to have on its squad beyond this summer. Or maybe a decision has already been made. But if Kicker is to believed, regardless of what Marotta decides to do with that buy option, it seems as though Benatia won’t be going back to play his football at the Allianz unless he’s on the visiting team.