Report: Juventus up offer for Matthijs de Ligt to €67 million

Even though there is no deal between Juventus and Ajax as of this very moment for defender Matthijs de Ligt, the common line of thinking is that there’s bound to be a resolution between the two clubs. We don’t know exactly when that agreement will take place or what the exact dollar amount it will be, but it’s not like there are a bunch of reports flying around that Juve and Ajax are suddenly not speaking to one another and that a de Ligt deal has suddenly fallen apart.

No, they’re talking.

And there’s reportedly been another bid put forward, with a pretty expected result coming from the Dutch champions’ end of the bargaining table.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport’s Nicolo Schira, Juventus has upped their bid to acquire de Ligt to €67 million, which is a pretty good jump up from the €55 million plus bonuses low-ball figure we heard about last week. As a surprise to really nobody, Ajax has again held firm on its desire to get the full €75 million figure that it has been asking for de Ligt since the start of this whole negotiation process, even with Juventus pretty much being the only club that is vying for him at the moment.

Schira does add this caveat: Juventus are expected to submit a new bid for de Ligt in the pretty immediate future, with the hope that there can be a resolution within the next 48 or 72 hours so that the 20-year-old defender can get to Turin over the weekend to complete things.

No matter if it’s €65 million, €67 million or the full pop of €75 million, a de Ligt resolution to this lengthy, lengthy negotiation process seems like it will come to an end some point soon. (Other rather prominent Italian journalists, like SportItalia’s Alfredo Pedulla, believe that a deal will be wrapped up come the start of the weekend.)

It’s been known for weeks now that Juventus and de Ligt himself — along with his agent Mino Raiola — have agreed to personal terms. Even then, Raiola came out over the weekend and confirmed that personal terms had been agreed to, stating that all that was left was for Juventus and Ajax to find some kind of agreement so that the final wheels can be put in motion.

Regardless of how long it might take for the final details to be completely figured out, de Ligt — who reported to preseason training with Ajax earlier this week — does seem to have Juventus in his immediate future ... and hopefully a long time after that. There’s just the final steps in this negotiation process to go, and let’s hope that those who are saying that it will be over come this weekend are actually on the money so that we don’t go through another week of the “de Ligt deal will be done by (insert day here)” talk again.