Report: Cristian Romero to undergo Juventus medical on Tuesday

Of those not named Matthijs de Ligt, there have been two main central defense transfer targets that we’ve all pretty much assumed that, at some point this summer, they will end up signing with Juventus. The first of those names, Merih Demiral, arrived from Sassuolo last week in an €18 million deal that was pretty much wrapped up without much fuss at all.

The second of those is about to be official in the coming days as well.

According to Sky Sport Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio, Genoa defender Cristian Romero, who has been long-anticipated to be one of Juventus’ summer additions, will be the latest player to roll through J Medical in Turin come Tuesday ahead of his transfer to the Italian champions. However, unlike Demiral, Romero isn’t expected to actually play for Juventus this coming season, with a loan spell back at Genoa or even at Atalanta the likely scenario for the 2019-20 campaign, according to Di Marzio.

It is believed that Juventus will pay between €15 million and €20 million for Romero.

Romero, who turned 21 years old at the end of April, has basically been anticipated to be a future Juventus player ever since the Bianconeri’s interest in the Argentine center back was confirmed by Genoa in early February. Since that point, Romero has talked quite openly about making the move to Juventus, which will be quite the jump up after playing his first year in Serie A this past season.

But even with the likelihood of Romero spending another season on loan at Genoa or some other Italian club that has a very good working relationship with Juventus, it’s pretty clear that Fabio Paratici is trying to set Juve’s defense up for the future as well as the present day.

And when it comes to Romero — who made 27 starts for Genoa last season — another year on loan will be the kind of consistent playing time he needs and that he certainly wouldn’t guaranteed or getting in Turin over the course of the next 12 months.

Romero will be in Turin on Tuesday, though — and it’s a place he’s hoping becomes home in due time.