Mino Raiola is angling for Matthijs de Ligt to potentially leave Juve this summer

Mino Raiola is one of the biggest names in the football agent world. He is an agent who gets his biggest clients big-money moves virtually every single summer, and is somebody that Juventus has worked with probably more times than we can remember. He’s had big clients at the club both in the past, in the present and likely in the future simply because he represents some of the best players in the game.

As we know, one of Raiola’s biggest clients currently calls Juventus home. And we like that, and we hope that is very much the case for the foreseeable future.

But, as of Raiola’s own words that came out Sunday, how long that is the case is suddenly completely up in the air. Here is a tweet from transfer reporter Fabrizio Romano involving Raiola and a large Dutchman who wears the Juventus jersey named Matthijs de Ligt and the former’s thoughts on the future of the latter at his current club:

Well, that’s not what you would call reassuring or anything close to it. I preferred the line I saw a few times on Twitter after the initial Raiola quotes that de Ligt’s next step would be to become Juventus’ captain. I’m sure a lot of people — or the vast, vast majority of them — would be totally OK with all of that, too.

For the record, Raiola went on to do a very Raiola thing and float out a few of the the names of the possible clubs that could be potential destinations for de Ligt, who signed for Juventus for €75 million and an additional €10.5 million in fees. They were, as you can probably guess, the only clubs — or, in this case, leagues — that could actually afford de Ligt at the moment. You know, the ones who are actually spending big money on the transfer market these days in the COVID-impacted financial state of things.

But this is very much the biggest instance since de Ligt joined Juventus in 2019 that Raiola has thrown major hints at the 22-year-old Dutchman leaving the club. It is convenient that it would come at the same time that de Ligt’s reported €150 million buyout clause goes into effect. And it is, as we know, the kind of thing that Raiola does is to make headline-grabbing moves and say these types of things before said transfers get set in motion.

The most worrying part of it is that he brings de Ligt himself into it with the “he thinks so too” portion of the equation. Do we know that is for the case? Well, no, not really since it’s Raiola, not de Ligt saying it. But to hear his agent saying it, as well as floating out the possibility of him leaving is not good. it’s not good at all.

Goal Italia’s Romeo Agretsi, a man who knows a thing or two and is connected to what’s happening at Juventus a lot more than most people, said this regarding the de Ligt comments by Raiola:

Chiare le intenzioni di Raiola su De Ligt: fare cinema e, al tempo stesso, far capire ai potenziali acquirenti che se ne può discutere. Insomma, la strategia è chiara. La clausola rescissoria, pure. Vedremo come evolverà il fronte nei prossimi mesi.

Raiola’s intentions on De Ligt are clear: to make films and, at the same time, to make potential buyers understand that it can be discussed. In short, the strategy is clear. The release clause, too. We will see how the front will evolve in the coming months.

What all of this means is still very much up in the air regardless of what Raiola has come out and said. We know it is very much a Raiola kind of move to put pressure on his client’s current club while likely reaching out to other clubs to see if something could take place. That’s nothing new. We pretty saw that play out when Paul Pogba was heading back to Manchester United in the summer of 2016.