Adrien Rabiot doesn’t sound overly optimistic about staying at Juventus

It may not be attracting as much attention as a certain somebody who had an expiring contract at the end of last season, but Adrien Rabiot is most certainly in the news for his contract that ends at the end of the 2022-23 campaign.

And with Rabiot on arguably his best form since signing with Juventus and now on international duty at the World Cup with France, he’s suddenly having to face questions a little more often than he would when the club schedule is going full steam ahead.

Rabiot took to the podium Wednesday for a press conference duty ahead of France’s World Cup quarterfinal matchup against England. And while a good number of the questions were about the defending world champions’ big showdown with one of the two Euro 2020 finalists, Rabiot also talked about his future at the club level, too. So what did he say? Let’s take a look ...

“I like the atmosphere that surrounds (English) football, as it’s different to France or Italy. I always said I would like to play in the Premier League.”

Interesting. Very, very interesting, Adrien. So, does that mean you might leave Juventus on a free and head to the Premier League?

“I don’t know.”

Expand on that, please?

“I don’t have a preferred team in England, there isn’t one that necessarily stands out to me, it’s the general league that attracts me. It suits my qualities more.”

You know what kind of impression that you get from reading those quotes? That Rabiot is not very optimistic about staying at Juventus beyond the 2022-23 season. And you want to know why that will likely happen and Rabiot will head out on an expiring contract?

It’s because of money.

Because it’s always about money with the Rabiots.

He has been one of Juventus’ highest-paid players ever since he signed with the club in the summer of 2019. It has been a point of contention that his €7.5 million net salary has been far ahead of what his actual on-field product was like during the vast majority of his first three years at Juventus. (You know, outside of those couple of post-lockdown months where he played well.)

It has been reported multiple times by Italian transfer reporter Nicolo Schira over the last couple of weeks that Rabiot and his mom-gent Veronique are asking for a contract worth €10 million net a season, one that Juventus was balking at even before everything went down involving the board of directors and the financial investigation(s). And don’t forget that Rabiot’s proposed move to Manchester United — one that Juventus was very much OK with seeing go through — fell apart because Veronique asked for a whole lotta money when it came to personal terms.

So maybe these quotes are Rabiot starting to come to the realization that he’s about to be talking to some other clubs not named Juventus about where he’s playing his football next season come January. It sure as heck doesn’t sound like a guy who is confident that his current team will still be the one that employs him beyond June. And that definitely seems like it will be the case if those reported contract demands continue to be what he and his mom-gent are asking for.