Reports: Mario Mandzukic turns down offer to join Paris Saint-Germain

In case you’ve been totally removed from all things Juventus over the last couple of weeks, you know that the cutting down of the club’s roster has been something that you’d call far from successful. Offers have come, offers have gone, and a pretty much every one of the names you thought would be on another club’s roster are still being paid by Juventus.

Add another one of those to the list.

According to reports from the likes of Sky Sport Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio and Goal Italia’s Romeo Agresti, Mario Mandzukic has turned down an offer to head to France and join Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain this summer, a rumor that had popped up over the last 24 or 48 hours following an injury to star strikers to Kylian Mbappe and Edison Cavani.

The reasoning, according to Di Marzio, is as follows:

Mandzukic will decide his future at his own pace, not during the final days of the transfer window. A departure in January remains a possibility, as Mandzukic will consider moving from Juventus to a new club, such as one in China or Manchester United if the desire returns. The offer from the Parisians was considered but ultimitely Mandzukic will take his time to decide his next move.

So, there you go.

After rumors of Sami Khedira leaving this summer, it looks like he’s staying. After rumors of Blaise Matuidi leaving this summer, it looks like he’s staying. After rumors of Gonzalo Higuain leaving this summer, it looks like he’s staying. And now, after a whole lot of rumors — maybe not as much as Paulo Dybala, but still a lot — about Mandzukic leaving Turin this summer because he doesn’t fit into Maurizio Sarri’s tactical plan, it looks as though he’s also going to be staying. Until January, at least.

Of course, knowing that the only other natural center forward that Juventus currently has on their roster is Higuain, it’s interesting to see where Mandzukic actually does fit into things these days. Is he just going to be a minimal player if he actually is still around after Sept. 2? Does he play much at all until January? It’s a situation where a good player — although one that is obviously on the decline — that has been very useful to Juve over the years suddenly is in a whole lot of uncertainty if he were to stay in Turin this summer.