OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Juventus hire Max Allegri as manager for a second time

Mad Max is back in Turin.

And it’s not just dropping in for a couple of hours to see some old friends or take part in a charity match that will see him roll out later that night, either.

Max Allegri is back at Juventus, and he’s going to be looked at the rebuild the club in his image and try to recapture some of the magic he delivered during his first run at the club that had nothing but Serie A titles come along with it.

Juventus officially announced the return of the 56-year-old Allegri on Friday, ending a wild 24-hour period that has seen him linked with multiple jobs and, seemingly out of nowhere and to the surprise of many, decide on a return to the club he left in 2019. Allegri replaces Andrea Pirlo, was relieved of his duties earlier in the day after a roller coaster ride of a 2020-21 season in charge of the now-former Serie A champions. Allegri has agreed to a four-year contract worth €9 million a season with Juventus and is expected to immediately be one of the highest-paid coaches in the game following his two-year hiatus.

There is also the added kicker on top of the nice new contract and big annual salary: Allegri, after parting ways with Juventus two years ago, will now have more control over how the roster is constructed. That means, in short, Allegri is a much more powerful man than he was the first time around as Juventus manager.

The statement, from Juventus’ official website is as follows:

Massimiliano Allegri is the Juventus manager once more.

Allegri finds a bench that he knows very well, a club that he loves and that loves him back, as today a new journey begins together, towards new goals.

What he achieved in his first adventure at Juventus are engraved in the club’s history: five Scudetti, to the four-consecutive doubles, coupled with the Coppa Italia and to the two Super Cups, reaching two Champions League finals in just three seasons, in what were epic feats both in Italy and in Europe.

We said goodbye two years ago with the message, “History Alone”, the message on the back of the shirt given to Massimiliano Allegri by President Andrea Agnelli with an embrace and a shirt, on which in just two words encapsulated Allegri’s experience at Juve.

The beauty of the story, however, is that it never stops. And in football, this means a concept that we have ingrained in our DNA: the best victory is the next one. Always.

And now we are ready to begin again with Allegri, to build our future together; with his enormous professionalism, his moral strength, with the brilliant ideas of a coach capable of shuffling the cards, both on and off the pitch. With his smile, a sort of “signature”. With his way of understanding football and life with simplicity, with his desire to play things down and with the commitment to enjoy every beautiful moment that being at Juventus can give and will give.

There you have it, folks.

It’s Allegri time once again in Turin. It’s for real this time.

Something that might not have seemed possible all of, oh. 96 hours ago is now very much a thing that we’re looking at as the real deal. The man who led Juventus to a pair of Champions League finals in the span of three seasons is back, and the goal is to get the back to that level over the course of this new cycle that he is going to spearhead.

With all of the jobs he’s reportedly turned down both recently and over the last two years, maybe this is a managerial job that Allegri always wanted to come back to and give it a go again. He’s reportedly turned down Real Madrid multiple times. He’s also been courted by the likes of Roma and Inter Milan, with neither Italian side providing what he was looking for.

Juventus, on the other hand, has once again. And now Allegri is back, looking to build off what was a first run that saw him win five Scudetti in five years. That is quite the bar to try and raise, but Allegri has proven that he can always surprise just when we least expected it.