OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Emil Audero to join Sampdoria permanently for €20 million

In the span of just about 18 months, Emil Audero has gone from youngster on loan in Serie B to one of the best young goalkeepers in Serie A. His current club, Sampdoria, have clearly learned just that — and are ready to make his loan spell at the Marassi a permanent one.

Sampdoria and Juventus have agreed to a €20 million fee for the 22-year-old Indonesia-born Audero. This €20 million figure is different than what Samp and Juve first agreed to when Audero moved on loan during the summer transfer window. Back then, it was a €14 million buy option for Sampdoria at the end of the 2018-19 season. But, with how well Audero has played this year and how quickly he’s established himself as Samp’s starter in goal, it’s pretty understandable as to why Juventus probably wanted to get a few more million out of the deal.

The official words of the deal, courtesy of Juventus’ official website:

Turin, 30 January 2019 - Juventus Football Club S.p.A. announces that the agreement with U.C. Sampdoria S.p.A. for the loan, until 30 June 2019, with option and counter-option rights, regarding the registration rights of the player Emil Audero Mulyadi has been modified.

According to the new agreement, Sampdoria will be obliged (instead of having the option right) to acquire on a permanent basis the player for a consideration of € 20 million, to be paid in the following four financial years, if the same club will achieve given sport results in the course of the 2018/2019 financial year. In consideration of the obligation assumed by Sampdoria, Juventus has waived its counter-option right granted by the previous agreement.

The updated details of the deal, first reported by Gianluca Di Marzio of Sky Sport Italia on Monday night, included the tidbit that Juve would acquire 20-year-old midfielder Daouda Peeters, who’d go the other direction in the deal. If included, which is obviously not mentioned in the press release above, Peeters could either play with Juventus’ Under-23 team or for Juve’s primavera side.

Audero has started all 21 Serie A games in goal for Sampdoria this season, helping the Blucerchiati to launch a serious challenge at a European spot as the second half of the 2018-19 campaign gets going. And outside of a few clunkers, Samp has continuously been one of the best defenses in all of Serie A this season.

Audero, to his credit, has gone from starting in Serie B last season to firmly establishing himself as one of the best young goalkeepers in Serie A this term. And with Juventus obviously well stacked in goal with Wojciech Szczesny and Mattia Perin, any kind of positive display from Audero was going to get Sampdoria’s attention knowing that they had a buy option worked into the loan deal.

That’s exactly what has happened. Now, Audero can continue his fine 2018-19 season knowing that he could be Sampdoria’s starting goalkeeper for the forseable future.