OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Juventus sign Nicolo Rovella, sell Manolo Portanova, Elia Petrelli to Genoa

Up until recently, Juventus’ business in the month of January had been to improve the Under-23 squad, not give Andrea Pirlo another option or two for the second half of the 2020-21 campaign. And while some of that changed come Friday morning in Italy, it will be a little while until we potentially see the fruits of this transaction actually pay off.

Juventus has announced its anticipated move for talented young Genoa midfielder Nicolo Rovella, a deal that will see him stay on loan at the Marassi until the end of the 2021-22 season. As par of the deal, Juventus will send midfielder Manolo Portanova — who spent much of the first half of the season with Juve’s senior squad — and youth team striker Elia Petrelli to Genoa as both team used some creative financing to make this happen.

All the official details of the deal, courtesy of Juve’s website, are as follows:

Turin, 29 January 2021 - Juventus Football Club S.p.A. announces that the following agreements have been finalized with Genoa Cricket and Football Club:

definitive acquisition of the registration rights of the player Nicolò Rovella for a consideration of € 18 million payable in three financial years; this consideration might be increased up to a maximum of € 20 million upon achievement of further performance objectives over the duration of the employment contract with the player. The contract also envisages the temporary disposal to Genoa of the registration rights of the player until 30 June 2022. Juventus and the player have signed a 4-year contract of employment until 30 June 2024;

definitive disposal of the registration rights of the player Manolo Portanova for a consideration of € 10 million to payable in three financial years, this consideration might be increased up to a maximum of € 5 million upon achievement of further performance objectives over the duration of the employment contract with the player. The economic effect of this transaction is positive for about € 9.6 million;

definitive disposal of the registration rights of the player Elia Petrelli for a consideration of € 8 million to payable in three financial years, this consideration might be increased up to a maximum of € 5.3 million upon achievement of further performance objectives over the duration of the employment contract with the player. The economic effect of this transaction is positive for about € 7.6 million.

As you can see, there’s a lot of numbers being thrown around there. So here’s the short version of it:

• Juventus will pay Genoa €18 million for Rovella over the next three years, with another €2 million in bonuses possible to raise the maximum value of the player’s deal to €20 million total.
• Genoa will pay Juventus €10 million for Portanova, with another €5 million in bonuses possible to raise the maximum value of the player’s deal to €15 million total.
• Genoa will pay Juventus €8 million for Petrelli, with another €5.3 million in bonuses possible to raise the maximum value of the player’s deal to €13.3 million total.
• The combined outcome of selling Portanova and Petrelli to Genoa is a net gain of €17.2 million.

It’s a plusvalenza world and we’re just living in, baby!

No matter the economics — and, obviously, in the post-pandemic world these things help things look a little better in the short term — Juventus has just signed a highly rated midfielder who just turned 19 years old in early December and will now be able to develop at a club that already knows him, has worked well with the Bianconeri in the past and has given him a solid amount of minutes in the first half of this current season. We don’t know where Rovella’s game will be come the end of his loan spell in the spring of 2022, but it’s a good bet to say that he’s the most promising player out of the three youngsters that were included in the deal.

So, like other youngsters that Juventus have acquired but then immediately sent out on loan to the club they were signed from over the years, we wait for them to come back to Turin and watch their development along the way. Rovella is certainly one of the best young prospects that Juve has on their books, and that’s never going to be a bad thing.