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In the never-ending cycle that is the quest to improve Juventus’ midfield, you’re bound to be linked to names that have been thrown out there in the past.
So, let this be the latest “Mateo Kovacic is re-evaluating his future at Real Madrid and Juventus are monitoring the situation” kind of rumor.
According to Spanish media outlet AS, the departure of manager Zinedine Zidane has caused Kovacic to think about if he’d like to stay at Real Madrid much longer. It is the second time in as many summers that Juventus and Kovacic have been linked to one another at some point of the offseason transfer window, something that AS was very quick to point out in saying that Juve haven’t ditched the idea of having the 24-year-old Croatian make a return to Serie A football.
It was about 10 months ago that AS reported that Real Madrid turned down an apparent €75 million (!!) bid from Juventus.
In an age of crazy transfer rumors — Sergej Milinkovic-Savic will cost Real Madrid €170 million! — and actual prices — Lazio want nine figures for Sergej Milinkovic-Savic! — who knows what Kovacic will cost Juventus this summer if the interest is indeed there again.
Based on the current midfield situation, it should be.
The catch in all of this Kovacic-to-Juventus talk is that the player himself will reportedly wait until Real Madrid hires a new manager before he makes his decision. That is a very logical step because, hey, maybe Kovacic is down with the guy who will be replacing Zidane this summer and will not have any kind of desire to leave the team that has won the last three Champions League trophies.
But knowing that Real Madrid’s midfield is currently as stacked as anybody else in Europe, it’s hard to say if playing time would change even under whoever they hire next.
You know where playing time would probably be better? At Juventus. Just throwing it out there in case Mateo and some of his Croatian national team teammates that currently play for Juventus want to put in a good word for him or something like that.