Cristian Romero sounds like somebody who would like to sign with Juventus

Based on what we know on the first day of March, Juvents intend to add a young central defender this upcoming summer. And when it comes to the two names most frequently linked with a move to Turin, they’re easy to identify — Matthijs de Ligt of Ajax and Genoa’s Cristian Romero.

Understandably, de Ligt has been relatively quiet regarding his future over the last couple of months as transfer rumors has only continued to heat up. Romero, on the other hand, spoke in detail about his career aspirations in an interview with the Corriere dello Sport on Thursday. And, what do you know, the topic of Juventus was brought up.

From the interview itself:

When I was a child my dream was to become a pro, now it is to play in the Champions League with one of the four most important clubs in the world: Juventus, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United. Then I would love to play for my national team, but I know that’s a difficult task. The Seleccion has Otamendi, one of the best defenders in the world.”

The centre-back was asked also about he rumors that see him close to joining Juventus next season: ”I don’t know. Right now my focus is on Genoa, there are a lot of game until the end of the season. I want to keep playing like this, then I will have a talk with Genoa’s directors and my agent. The contract extension? It makes me happy, it proves that the club has faith in me. Now it’s up to me to show my quality on the pitch.”

(Source: Gianluca Di Marzio)

Let’s just go after that first paragraph for a second. You see that first team mentioned? Yeah, that’s Juventus, the team that has been consistently linked with a move for Romero ever since the young Argentine started to truly impress in his first season with Genoa. Who knows what the two Spanish giants and Manchester United have in mind when it comes to Romero — we all know that Barcelona have been one of the regular names associated with de Ligt — but Romero’s interest in Juventus is, according to the man himself, not just some new thing that he’s developed because he heard some transfer rumors.

Romero has been rumored to be in line for a contract extension over the past week or so, a move that could very well just be a mere procedural move before selling him on to a big club for a much bigger fee than anticipated.

I don’t think anybody is thinking that Romero’s potential transfer fee will rival that of de Ligt simply because of what the two youngsters have accomplished thus far. Plus, there’s the whole fact that de Ligt is the much, much more hyped prospect of the two, which means he’s going to be one of the hottest properties on the transfer market this summer.

But, when it comes to Romero, it’s becoming pretty clear that both the player himself and Juventus are interested in making something happen this summer. And we all know that Juve and Genoa have had plenty of business transactions completed between the two of them the last couple of summers.