OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Juventus sign Boca Juniors midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur for €9.5 million

When Juventus announced that Carlos Tevez was returning to Argentina to play for the club he loved so much, there was what seemed like a laundry list of young Boca Juniors players that Juve had the option to purchase in the future.

One of them has now officially moved to Turin.

The long-talked about move of Boca’s teenage midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur signing with Juventus has now become an actuality. Bentancur, 19, who took his medical in Turin three weeks ago, has seen his €9.5 million move to Juventus announced on Friday evening. Bentacur has put pen to paper on a five-year contract that will see him signed through the 2021-22 season.

Here is the official wording of the detail, courtesy of Juventus’ website:

Juventus Football Club S.p.A. announces that the agreement with Asociación Civil Club Atlético Boca Juniors for the definitive acquisition of the registration rights of the player Rodrigo Bentancur Colman has been finalised. The transfer fee of € 9.5 million will be payable in two financial years.

The purchase value may increase in the course of the duration of the contract on achieving given conditions based on a certain number of official games played by the player. Moreover, in case of a later transfer of the player, Boca Juniors will be entitled to receive 50% of the amounts collected by Juventus.

Juventus and the player have signed a 5-year contract of employment starting from 1 July 2017 and expiring on 30 June 2022.

Bentancur is the second player from the Tevez deal to play for Juventus, with young Argentine forward Guido Vadala spending last season on loan in Turin as he played for the club’s primavera side. However, that only was a one-year stay with the Italian champions, with Vadala retuning to Argentina and subsequently loaned out to Unión de Santa Fe.

The hope is that Bentancur stays a lot longer than his former teammate.

Bentancur is the first signing of Juve’s “summer” transfer campaign. And hey, it’s not even May yet! What a deal!

The deal to sign the 19-year-old Uruguayan was always thought of to take place based on what Juve director general Beppe Marotta has said about Bentancur over the last few months. Marotta was confident something was going to happen, but it was just a matter of dealing with Boca and settling terms outside of the fixed buy price that was established in the Tevez deal. He proved to be right on the money.