OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Juventus sign PSG midfielder Adrien Rabiot

Juventus’ interest in now-former Paris Saint Germain midfielder Adrien Rabiot doesn’t go back a few weeks or a few months. It goes back much, much longer than that. More than a transfer window or two. More than a couple of summers. It seems as though almost as long as this here blog has been around, Juve has been linked with a move in one way or another for Rabiot. (Rough estimation on that last point.)

Now, as the calendar flips from June to July, that dance to try and sign Rabiot is over.

One of Juventus’ longest transfer chases is done — and for good reason.

Rabiot is the latest in a long string of Bosman transfers that Juventus have used to their advantage over the last decade. After seeing his contract with PSG officially expire over the weekend, Rabiot and his beautiful head of hair has officially become a part of the Juventus family, signing a five-year contract with the Italian champions worth a reported €7 million a season along with a signing bonus upward of €10 million.

Rabiot is the second midfielder to arrive on a free transfer this summer, with Aaron Ramsey’s deal — one that was announced back in early February — also becoming official on Monday.

Rabiot, 24, arrives in Turin looking to find regular first team football after his time in Paris ended rather tumultuously. Rabiot’s last on-field action came in the middle of December after PSG basically benched him for the second half of last season after he decided he would not sign a contract extension. This came after Rabiot — who only appeared in a total of 14 Ligue 1 matches (12 starts) last season — declined a spot on France’s standby squad for the 2018 World Cup, a tournament that his country wound up winning.

Some described Rabiot’s career being at a crossroads last season as it looked like his time at PSG was coming to an end.

And now he will be looking to do so in Turin.

The midfield has been the weak spot of the last few Juventus squads, and the addition of both Rabiot and Ramsey will be looked upon as the signings that at least start to turn things in the right direction. Rabiot might not be the complete game-changing kind of player that a fellow Frenchman who has been linked to Juventus this summer might be, but he’s young enough and talented enough to grow into the potential a lot of people says he has during his time in Turin.