Juventus confirm Champions League group stage roster

With the group stage draw complete and Champions League play scheduled to resume after the international break, the qualified squads now have to go through the formalities in submitting the rosters for the group stage.

Massimiliano Allegri will have a roster of 23 to chose from over the six-match group campaign. The roster doesn’t have the requisite number of eight locally trained players, however, so they can’t get to the maximum number of 25 and had to leave a couple of players out. That’s been a problem for Juve for a couple of years now (remember the two straight seasons when Stephan Lichtsteiner was left off the UEFA roster for the groups), and tends to be a consequence when your youth system doesn’t properly. One boon to the squad setup was the return of Moise Kean, who adds to the list of home-grown talent.

But two players from the senior team had to be left out. The most notable is Kaio Jorge. The 19-year-old striker will be limited to Serie A games when he returns from a muscle injury, which is expected in late September. Whether or not that was always in the plans or whether the injury was a deciding factor isn’t readily apparent. The other player left out is Luca Pellegrini, who was kept out in order to allow for Arthur, who isn’t going to be ready to play until at least halfway through the group stage but was deemed more important to have available, to be named.

That doesn’t mean the Champions League is over for them. If Juve navigate the group as expected they’ll have to resubmit the roster for the knockout rounds, and if either player impresses (or is needed to replace an injured teammate) they can be brought up.

The full list is as follows (positions are as listed on the Juve official web site’s roster page):

GOALKEEPERS: Wojciech Szczesny, Mattia Perin, Carlo Pinsoglio

DEFENDERS: Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci, Matthijs De Ligt, Daniele Rugani Alex Sandro, Danilo, Juan Cuadrado, Mattia De Sciglio

MIDFIELDERS: Rodrigo Bentancur, Adrien Rabiot, Manuel Locatelli, Weston McKennie, Arthur, Aaron Ramsey, Federico Chiesa, Federico Bernardeschi, Dejan Kulusevski

FORWARDS: Paulo Dybala, Alvaro Morata, Moise Kean