Genoa president confirms Juventus are interested in Cristian Romero

Genoa and Juventus have done plenty of business together over the years. There was the deals for Domenico Criscito and Leonardo Bonucci a decade ago. In more recent times, there’s been deals for players like Stefano Sturaro, Rolando Mandragora and, just last summer, Mattia Perin.

It looks as though Juventus and Genoa will be negotiating come the summer transfer window, too.

Genoa president Enrico Preziosi confirmed in an interview with Sky Sport Italia on Tuesday that Juventus are indeed interested in signing center back Cristian Romero, who has been one of the handful of central defenders linked with a move to Turin in recent weeks.

“Romero? Juve are very interested, but we’d like to keep him.”

(Source: Football Italia)

Short and sweet. To the point. Very nice, Enrico.

Depending on what Italian media outlet you read, the cost of acquiring the 20-year-old Romero could range anywhere from €20 million to €30 million. Considering that Genoa paid all of €1.65 million for him over the summer, that would be quite the impressive haul for a club that has done some very good business in recent weeks.

For Juventus, though, the confirmation — at least from Genoa’s end — of their interest in Romero signifies that the club is in fact trying to bring in a young central defender this coming summer. Obviously the dream is Matthijs de Ligt, but there are going to be a whole host of other clubs with deep pockets calling up Ajax trying to secure the talented teenagers services during the summer transfer window. Romero, while not all that experienced in Serie A, is the much, much more affordable option.

For what it’s worth, Juventus Chief Football Officer Fabio Paratici was reportedly in the stands for Genoa’s 1-1 draw against Sassuolo over the weekend. Something tells me it wasn’t to check in on how Sturaro’s rehab is going.

And in case you’re still skeptical about what Preziosi is saying, here’s this: When it came down to what he said regarding Perin’s future beyond last season, he was pretty much right on the money. Preziosi said Perin wanted a new challenge, wanted the chance to possibly play in the Champions League and that Juventus was the club that offered that the most. And we all know how that turned out...