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Part of Juventus’ roster trimming this past summer involved Stefano Sturaro, the Italian version of being the Golden Boy of How to Not Play Football Well, being sent out on loan to Sporting in Portugal. There was a caveat that Sturaro would rehab in Turin as he tried to get back to 100 percent and rehabbed from injury.
As it turned out, Sturaro has played as many games for Sporting than I have ever since he signed on loan with the Portuguese side.
And, as a result, it looks as though that green-and-white-colored door is closing in Portugal. But at the same time, a relatively familiar door in Italy is about to open up again.
According to Turin-based journalist Romeo Agresti and Sky Sport Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio, Sturaro is about to head out on loan once again. It will not be to Portugal even though he hasn’t technically been in Portugal the last four months.
#Juventus: è fatta per il prestito (con diritto di riscatto attorno ai 10 milioni) di #Sturaro al #Genoa // Sturaro joins Genoa on loan @GoalItalia
— Romeo Agresti (@romeoagresti) January 7, 2019
In fact, the player has not played in Portugal due to injury and returned to Italy for his recovery. Therefore, only his formal return to Juventus is needed before completing the move to Genoa. Sturaro will transfer to the Rossoblu on loan with a buyout that will be fixed between 8 to 10 million euros. In any case, the midfielder will not be available right away because he is still recovering from his injury.
Stefano Sturaro’s stint in Portugal, we hardly knew ye.
Of course, returning to Juventus wouldn’t be the only “return” of this transaction. Genoa is where Sturaro first made a name for himself and the club where Juventus sent money over to three years ago. Over the last three years, Sturaro’s role arguably got smaller and smaller as time went on, and he made a grand total of 10 starts in all competitions last season.
But hey, at least he made that one play against Real Madrid in the Champions League a couple of years ago. We’ll always have that, and it will never not be nice because that helped Juventus get to a Champions League final. (Let’s just not talk about that final, okay?)