Report: Juventus, Paulo Dybala close to contract extension agreement

Based on it being the second week of September, what we last heard about Juventus and Paulo Dybala agreeing to a contract extension during the early stages of the coronavirus lockdown in Italy have proven to be ... a little off the mark. We were told maybe, just maybe, the only thing preventing a deal getting 100 percent done was the travel restrictions from countries outside of Europe as Italy started to slowly reopen.

Still, we sit here less than two weeks before the 2020-21 season is set to kickoff, and now contract extension has been signed. Nothing close to it, really. Negotiations have gone on longer than any of us could have thought. Like, months longer than any of us thought. What was expected to be done before the 2019-20 season ended has no lingered on all summer — yes, even with the craziness of the last season — and is now on the brink of carrying over into the new campaign.

That is, unless what Tuttosport is reporting on Tuesday is on the money. It is a report that says that Juventus Chief Football Officer Fabio Paratici and Dybala’s representation are close to agreeing to the contract extension we’ve been waiting for months to be announced. According to Tuttosport, Dybala will sign said extension through 2025 and get an annual salary of €7 million with that potentially going up to €10 million with certain bonuses. Dybala currently makes around the same €7 million net salary per season, one of Juventus’ highest annual figures.

Tuttosport also makes it clear: There are still some small details to work out with this contract extension, but the agreement in principle has always been expected to arrive.

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OK, now that we’ve gotten that out of my system, we can continue with this matter at hand.

The Dybala contract extension saga was never supposed to be this drawn out. Hell, it wasn’t supposed to be considered a saga at all, frankly. To give you an idea of just how long this has lasted and been something that has come and gone and then come back again into the news cycle, the first reports of Juve working on a new deal for Dybala was all the way back in February. That’s seven months ago. And even in these coronavirus times where time isn’t exactly easy to measure and two weeks can feel like two or three months,

The sticking point, at least from what the Italian press has reported in recent weeks, is that there’s been some hesitation on Juve’s part to commit that much money in annual salary to Dybala, who very nearly left the club last summer when he was close to signing with Manchester United and then Tottenham. That could be why Tuttosport’s latest reporting involves the €10 million figure only being reached if certain performance bonuses are met rather than that being what he is paid on a yearly basis.

If it truly is the smallest details that remain in this lengthy negotiations, then that is some really positive news to come at a time where Juve’s financial resources are preventing them from doing anything major on the transfer market. Dybala clearly wants to stay. He made that very apparent last summer even though the club had other ideas. And now that they seem willing to commit to him going into the future, you know he’s more than happy to agree to a long-term contract.