OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Sami Khedira signs contract extension through 2021

When Sami Khedira first arrived at Juventus the talk was not about his skills, but rather just how he wasn’t able to stay healthy on any kind of a consistent basis. Those concerns have basically been shuttered, but there have been other Khedira-related things that have occupied that space.

And it’s not like they’re going to die down anytime soon.

Khedira is going to be hanging out with Mario Mandzukic and the like for a little while longer, folks. Juventus announced on Wednesday that the 31-year-old Khedira has signed a two-year contract extension that will keep him with the club until the 2020-21 season.

Khedira, whose goal tally last season was the most from a Juventus midfielder in over two decades (Andreas Möller in 1993-94), has recorded the highest number of minutes amongst Juve midfielders over the last three seasons in all competitions (8,882). That means the worry over all the injuries Khedira had at the start of his time in Turin are now a thing of the past. However, as time has gone on, there’s been more worries about Khedira’s overall impact rather than the fact that he just isn’t going to be on the field enough.

He is obviously a very important part to this Juventus team in the eyes of manager Max Allegri. And there will obviously be those times where Khedira will have an impact beyond the stat sheet because sometimes there’s not just the passing data to evaluate somebody.

But if you were to tell me that Emre Can’s arrival and a Sami Khedira contract extension would happen within a couple of months of one another a year or so ago, I’m not sure I would have really believed you. The line of thinking was, at least in my mind, that one German midfielder was being brought in to eventually replace the other. And maybe that’s still the case. For now, though, Khedira is going to be a Juventus player beyond what the initial four-year contract he signed when he arrived on a free transfer from Real Madrid.