Report: Gonzalo Higuain wants to prove himself at Juventus

A couple of years ago, the current situation Gonzalo Higuain finds himself in might not have been imaginable. He was, for all intents and purposes, the central figure of Juventus’ South American-heavy attack, with Higuain being the focal point and No. 9 alongside countryman Paulo Dybala and the Brazilian flair of Douglas Costa.

That was 2017 as Juventus was ready to defend the Serie A title for the fifth straight season.

Now, as we sit here in the summer of 2019, Higuain’s role at Juventus is pretty much anybody’s guess as players are preparing to report to preseason training this week.

According to Sky Sport Italia, Higuain doesn’t want to replicate the kind of season he had year ago when he went on two different loan spells at AC Milan and Chelsea. Instead, as Sky Sport Italia stated on Monday night, Higuain — who will report to J Medical for his preseason medical exams, per usual — wants to prove himself at Juventus once and will speak with Juve’s manager, Maurizio Sarri, to see where he may fit into the club’s plans.

This comes not even 48 hours after the Corriere dello Sport — which, admittedly, isn’t Italy’s most reputable transfer rumor source — reported Higuain was open to a move to Roma this summer.

Also: Sarri has called up Higuain as part of the 33-man squad that begins preseason training on Wednesday morning at Juventus Training Center.

Higuain’s future was always going to be up in the air this summer once Sarri left Chelsea. Even then, with his time in London being less than impressive, it was always going to be unlikely that the option to buy on Chelsea’s end was going to be taken up. Because of that, Higuain has again returned to Turin in the same kind of spot as he did last summer after international duty with Argentina and Juventus still basking in all of its glory following the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo, who Sky Sport Italia says that Higuain wants to work alongside this upcoming season.

Even with his wages, Roma seems like a logical destination seeing as Edin Dzeko has long been associated with a move to Inter this summer. And with no other proven striker on the squad other than Dzeko — no, Patty Schick, that’s not you — Roma’s obviously going to be in need of some kind of goal scoring threat.

But, again, it’s Roma, so figuring out their line of thinking isn’t always as easy as it might look from the outside.