OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Juventus sell Leonardo Bonucci to AC Milan for €42 million

Leonardo Bonucci was one of Beppe Marotta’s first acquisitions at Juventus. He was one half of Bari’s exceptional tandem in the center of the defense alongside Andrea Ranocchia, with debates about which one of the two youngsters would be the better signing. As Ranocchia’s career sputtered for a variety of reasons

That’s all a thing of the past now.

And so is Bonucci being a pillar of Juventus’ success.

The sudden and swift change of scenery for one of Juve’s most important players during their six-year title run is now official. Bonucci, one of the most beloved Juventus players there has been over the past decade, is a Juventus player no longer. Both Juventus and AC Milan have announced that Bonucci has agreed to switch from a black and white striped adidas jersey to one that is red and black.

The price of the deal to bring Bonucci to Milan is a little more than what we thought it would be — a €42 million transfer fee compared to the €40 million that was widely reported in the Italian press on Thursday. More on the move, courtesy of Juventus’ official website:

Turin, 15 July 2017 - Juventus Football Club S.p.A. announces that an agreement has been finalized with A.C. Milan for the definitive disposal of the registration rights of the player Leonardo Bonucci for a consideration of € 42 million to be paid in three football seasons.

The economic effect is positive for about € 39,5 million.

In his seven years with Juventus, Bonucci has gone from mistake-prone youngster who looked like he could never really develop into anything of note to a player who is now amongst the best at his position in the entire world. He was a vital part of each one of the Scudetto-winning sides on top of being one-third of the famed BBC defense that Juve first built its success on with Antonio Conte.

But now, it’s a thing of the past.

We may never know why Bonucci left. And, at this point, I don’t even know if I want to hear about. Fact is, Juventus have sold one of their best players for a transfer fee that seems like it needs more than just a couple more millions added onto it. Maybe it was too much to expect Bonucci to stick around for the length of the contract he signed back in December or even come close to it.

Either way, Juventus is not as good of a team now as they were when Bonucci arrived at J Medical for his preseason examinations. We’ll see where things go from here, but it’s definitely going to be weird to see Bonucci in something other than bianconero come the start of the new Serie A season next month. There’s no way to avoid that.

The BBC is officially a thing of the past now. May we always remember good things about the BBC. And now that there’s only one of the ‘B’s left, we can only hope that Juve can continue to be the gold standard when it comes to defense in Italy. You know what they say about Italians and defense, after all...