OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Valencia exercise permanent buy option on Simone Zaza

Ever since the first few weeks after he signed with Juventus, there were signs pointing toward Simone Zaza leaving the club. He ended up spending one season in Turin, with his stay relatively short and only providing a few memorable moments.

The official move away from Juve came on Monday morning. And Zaza, who had an even shorter stay in England, will now call Spain his permanent home. (For the next season, least.)

Juventus have announced that Zaza, who they signed from Sassuolo two summers ago, has see his loan spell with Valencia turned into a permanent move, with the Spanish club utilizing their rumored right-to-buy option and signing him to a contract through the 2020-21 season. The deal will see Juventus get €16 million for the outright transfer of the 25-year-old Zaza, with another couple million coming their way if certain things performance-related conditions are met.

The official wording of the deal, courtesy of Juventus’ website:

Juventus Football Club S.p.A. announces that, following the achievement of the conditions provided by the contract, the “call option” for the definitive transfer of the registration rights of the player Simone Zaza has been exercised by Valencia Club de Futbol SAD.

The permanent transfer fee is € 16 million, to be paid in two financial years, and may increase by a further € 2 million on achieving given conditions in the course of the duration of the contract.

This transaction generates a positive economic effect, in 2016/2017 financial year, for about € 3.7 million.

Zaza has scored four goals in his first 14 appearances with Valencia, which currently sits in 12th in the La Liga table. Two of those goals came this past weekend in Valencia’s 3-1 win over Granada, a game in which Zaza made his third consecutive start.

Ten of his 14 appearances have been starts, with the Italian international pretty much stepping right into the starting lineup since his loan spell at West Ham came to an end and he traded in English football for ball in Spain.

That’s obviously more playing time than he would have gotten if he stayed at Juventus. Although, I gotta admit it would have been nice to have a natural backup to play behind Gonzalo Higuain in this 4-2-3-1 formation Max Allegri has utilized the last three months.

Either way, best of luck in Spain, Simone. Oh, and thanks for that goal against Napoli last season. That was pretty cool, if you ask me.