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When look at the players at Juventus who are over the age of 30 and are entering the final year or two of their respective contracts, there’s a group of three in the non-Cristiano Ronaldo division that jump off the page right away: Gonzalo Higuain, Sami Khedira and Blaise Matuidi. All three have rather large salaries and don’t have nearly the same kind of rule at the club as they did when they first signed with Juve.
Just a few days into the 2020 offseason, it looks like Matuidi is heading to Inter.
No, not that Inter.
According to reports from ESPN correspondent Julien Laurens, Sky Sport Italia’s Fabrizio Romano and Italian websites calciomercato.com and tuttomercatoweb.com, Matuidi is set to leave Juventus and join Major League Soccer’s newest franchise, Inter Miami. It is there that Matuidi — who signed with Juventus in August of 2017 from Paris Saint-Germain — will be reunited with former teammate David Beckham, who finally got his soccer-in-Miami vision up and running this past spring. (That team hasn’t actually won a game yet, though, having lost its first five games before the season was suspended and then finished bottom of its MLS Is Back Tournament group.)
Blaise Matuidi to Inter Miami is a done deal. Total agreement reached today with Juventus. Medicals scheduled. Here we go ⚪️⚫️ @SkySport #transfers
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 10, 2020
ESPN’s report says that Matuidi is currently in Paris following Juventus’ elimination from the Champions League last Friday at the hands of Lyon. It is there that he will undergo his medical exams and then sign his contract with Inter Miami. (Who knows when he will actually join Inter Miami since there are travel restrictions from Europe to the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic.)
Tuttomercatoweb’s report states that Juventus will save around €7 million in salary with Matuidi leaving the club this summer. His contract was set to expire next summer.
No matter who ended up replacing Maurizio Sarri as Juventus’ manager, Matuidi was always going to be a candidate to leave the club this summer. He was a candidate to leave the club last summer, with Monaco or even a return to PSG being thrown out there as potential destinations for the now 33-year-old Frenchman.
This summer it seemed even more like a possibility seeing as Juventus’ midfield is clearly in need of upgrades and major changes. Throw in the emergence of fellow Frenchman Adrien Rabiot over the last two months of the Serie A restart and Matuidi’s standing as a key cog in Juventus’ midfield was pretty much no longer a thing.