Report: Juventus, Rodrigo Bentancur agree to contract extension through 2024

Amid a Juventus midfield that saw a whole lot of problems instead of solutions, Rodrigo Bentancur getting a significant amount more playing time than his first year in Turin. It’s not like it made Juve’s midfield significantly better or allowed us to not worry about that area of the field entering every big game the team played, but Bentancur truly got the chance to show his talent on a consistent basis much more than in the 2017-18 season.

According to reports this week, i’s been enough to convince the Juve management team that he’s one for the future.

And you know what that means?

Lock him up — meaning add a couple more years onto his contract and pair that with a nice little raise.

Sky Sport Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio reported earlier this week that Juventus and Bentancur had agreed to a contract extension through 2024, adding two more years onto the current deal the young Uruguayan has been locked into since he first joined the club two years ago. Di Marzio also adds that Bentancur’s salary, which is currently one of the lowest of any senior squad players, will get a hefty bump up to €2.5 million after taxes.

That seems like a pretty good thing to me.

Bentancur, who turns 22 in a couple of weeks, appeared in 39 games in all competitions this past season for Juventus. That’s a significant uptick over the vast majority of his appearances in the 2017-18 campaign coming off the bench, with just eight of those appearances being starts in either Serie A or the Champions League.

But, as Juve’s main starting midfielders get older and prove to be not up to the level the club needs them to be at, Bentancur’s growth is going to become even that more important to the club’s success. And now that he’s also a clear-cut starter on the international level with Uruguay — which opens up its Copa America campaign next weekend — it’s not like he’s going suddenly stop going up against quality competition more often than not.

You combine the reports of Bentancur agreeing to a new deal to the recent reports of Moise Kean agreeing to a brand new long-term contract and you have two of Juventus’ brightest youngsters now set to bet set for the next handful of seasons at the very least. And knowing the average age of the current Juventus squad, making sure that two of the youngest players — who just so happen to be incredibly talented, too — aren’t going anywhere is quite crucial.