Reports: Juventus close to signing Mohamed Ihattaren from PSV Eindhoven

It doesn’t look as though Juventus is going to be quiet heading into the final two days of the summer transfer window. And the business they do carry out might not have an impact on the 2021-22 roster, either.

According to reports from Sky Sport Italia’s Fabrizio Romano and Goal Italia’s Romeo Agresti, Juventus are set to sign 19-year-old PSV Eindhoven midfielder Mohamed Ihattaren. The young Dutchman, who has been called up to the Netherlands national team but has yet to make his full senior team debut, is very much an advanced midfielder with a creative spark to his game, and would be viewed as the kind of trequartista that somebody like Max Allegri would certainly like to see in his squad one day.

There’s a catch in all of this, though: Ihattaren — who is a Mino Raiola client — won’t be a Juventus player this season. Or, I guess I should say he will still be on the books at Juventus but not actually wear the black and white stripes this season. Part of the deal to bring the young Dutchman to Italy, according to reports, involves loaning him to Sampdoria for the 2021-22 season.

Ah, good old synergy deals. It’s kinda like the days of co-ownership, but kinda different.

(Also, insert your joke about him going out on loan and then never actually appearing for Juventus here because we’ve become all to familiar with that happening to young players.)

Despite his young age — he won’t turn 20 years old until the middle of February — Ihattaren has over 60 appearances for PSV in all competitions to his name. He made his senior squad debut in 2019 after first joining the PSV youth ranks in 2010. In those 60-plus appearances, Ihattaren has scored 12 goals.

Somebody who is quick and skillful on the ball, Ihattaren going to Sampdoria for the 2021-22 season is the kind of move that would hopefully result in a whole lot more playing time than he would receive if he gets to Juventus. We don’t know how the deal would be totally structured yet or even what the transfer fee could be, but one would have to think that Juve wouldn’t send him to Sampdoria unless they have some kind of assurance that he’d get regular minutes to develop.