Report: Paulo Dybala contract extension talks ‘proceeding very well’

Locking Paulo Dybala into a new contract has become one of Juventus’ summer priorities. This might come as a surprise seeing as the two sides, Juve and Dybala’s agent, didn’t talk for so long. But, with Max Allegri’s arrival back at the club, the silence between Juventus and their No. 10’s representation didn’t extend into another season after things were so quiet for so many months.

Jorge Antun is out of mandatory quarantine and has already held one meeting with Juventus. On Wednesday, that second meeting took place, with Antun rolling up to Continassa to hold talks with Juventus’ front office.

And by all accounts, it’s going rather well.

According to Romeo Agresti of Goal Italia, Juventus’ talks with Dybala’s agent, Jorge Antun, are “proceeding very well.” Now, we obviously don’t know just how well since we aren’t sitting there next to Antun or Federico Cherubini and Maurizio Arrivabene — at a safe distance, of course, since this is still a pandemic — but the fact that there seems to be a general sense coming out of these meetings that a deal will actually get done is something we haven’t heard for months, if not over a year when reports early last summer made us believe a deal was actually done.

According to Sky Italia, Juventus has proposed a contract extension through 2025 with the option for another season and and an annual salary of €8 million. (Which, as you may remember, is lower than the €10 million figure we heard about back in the beginning of the calendar year.)

If only Juventus and Sassuolo met with this kind of frequency to discuss the deal for Manuel Locatelli, right? Maybe we’d have a deal by now. (Not that I’m getting impatient or anything like that.)

Along with Agresti, Sky also reported that Juventus and Antun will meet again this weekend, which gives you a sign that things progressing and that a deal could very well happen in the relatively immediate future. (I personally love how Sky described the hour-long meeting: “It was a cordial appointment that will have a sequel.” That’s just so Italian.)

Dybala — who returned to training earlier this weekend and should be available for this weekend’s friendly against Atalanta in Turin — is already one of Juventus’ top earners with an annual salary of around €7.5 million a season. If this €8 million offer does end up being close to what the two sides agree upon, it’s a sign that Dybala’s agent and the player himself are willing to work with Juventus to try and reach a deal more than in the past.

Either way, getting this huge piece of the summer agenda done and out of the way would be a huge boost to the start of the Allegri era. And, in turn, hopefully getting a new contract is the thing that gets Dybala back to playing like we know he can.