Report: Juan Cuadrado’s deal gets extended thanks to appearance clause

So much of the talk around the group of Juventus players who will be out of contract at the end of the season is that the talks for any potential new deals has been continuously kicked down the road outside of Paulo Dybala. There’s been talk of contract talks, but every time a Juventus front office member is asked about it, the general sense is that they’re still to come, not necessarily already happening.

One of those players who have had talks kicked down the road further and further has been Juan Cuadrado, a guy who has been a rather important piece to the puzzle the last few years.

Now it looks like he’s sticking around even though talks have been pushed back time and time again this season.

According to Goal Italia’s Romeo Agresti on Monday, Cuadrado’s current deal has seen another year added onto it thanks to an appearance clause built into the contract extension he signed back in 2019. The magic number of appearances was 40 in all competitions, which Cuadrado hit with his start against Cagliari, allowing for Johnny Square to get locked into next season’s roster. As much as this clause has settled things for the immediate future, Agresti has reported that Juventus is still looking to work on a two-year extension with a lower salary — something that is very much true with what has been reported about how the club is approaching contract extension talks throughout the second half of the season.

Out of the bigger names that are out of contract at season’s end, Cuadrado looked like one of the most likely to stay. That was obviously before we knew of this clause in his contract that would kick in with his 40th appearance of the 2021-22 season. But now we can cross one of the major names off the list and actually know for sure that he will be around come the start of next season.

Now with this clause reportedly clicking in, we understand why contract talks with Cuadrado might not have been a major priority. If Juventus knew that said clause would happen at some point during this final month and a half of the season, then the more pressing matter would be to work on the two-year deal Agresti mentions — which has been the kind of contract length that many expected to happen even before this appearance clause came to light.

But now that the 34-year-old Cuadrado is at least around for another season — although, as you can probably figure out, there has been no official statement on the matter just yet — then one of the bigger priorities for the summertime is checked off the list.