OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Juventus sign Fiorentina winger Federico Bernardeschi for €40 million

Juventus entered the summer transfer window with a desire to bring in more punch and creativity on the wings to make sure Max Allegri could still roll out his favorite 4-2-3-1 formation. The names were out there for everybody to see — Douglas Costa, Federico Bernardeschi, Keita Balde Diao. We didn’t know which player(s) Juventus were going to go for, but we knew that the goal was to wind up with one of them at the very least.

Douglas Costa arrived earlier this month.

And now, Bernardeschi has done the same.

Juventus and Fiorentina have officially announced that the 23-year-old Bernardeschi has joined the six-time defending Italian champions on a deal that is worth €40 million — one of the largest fees the club has paid out during the Andrea Agnelli era. Bernardeschi, one of Fiorentina’s most-prized assets, has signed a five-year contract with Juventus and will surely be looked upon to do major damage on the opposite wing as where Douglas Costa is playing.

The full details of the deal, courtesy of Juventus’ official website:

Turin, 24 July 2017 - Juventus Football Club S.p.A. announces that the agreement with ACF Fiorentina S.p.A. for the definitive acquisition of the registration rights of the player Federico Bernardeschi has been finalized for a consideration of € 40 million payable in three financial years. The consideration may increase of an equal amount to the 10% of the future transfer price up to a maximum of € 5 million.

Juventus and the player have signed a 5-year contract of employment until 30 June 2022.

And thus, The Great Winger Hunt of 2017 can be considered a success.

A very, very big success.

Bernardeschi, who spent nearly a decade in Florence between the youth academy and the senior squad, is expected to join up with his new teammates in the United States and be in attendance for Juventus’ International Champions Cup game against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night in Miami.

In the last few years, Bernardeschi has established himself as one of the best players in Serie A that’s under the age of 23. He’s amongst those considered as one of the players part of the Italian national team’s new-look generation of stars. Now, he joins a Juventus attacking group that features fellow summer signing Douglas Costa, Paulo Dybala, Gonzalo Higuain — something that surely has more than a few folks in Serie A wondering how the heck they’re going to be able to defend all of them at once.

Now, Bernardeschi will look to meet the expectations of the large sum of money Juventus just agreed to hand over to Fiorentina. But, if his first reception outside of J Medical is any indication of how his Juventus career may go, we should be in for some fun in the future.

Welcome, Fede. And may you do lots of good things in your new brand new jersey. We hope you enjoy the black and white stripes as much as we do.