Report: Juventus ‘progressing’ in talks with Ángel Di Maria

As we’ve pretty much figured out by now, Juventus transfer dealing this summer are going to involve replacing attacking players who are leaving because they’re out of contract or seeing their loan deal end with a buy clause not being picked up. That means, there’s likely at least two spots on the roster to fill with the chance that a couple more spots could open up sooner rather than later.

It looks as though Juve’s already working to fill one of those spots already.

The rumors of Juventus’ interest in soon-to-be out-of-contract Paris Saint-Germain winger Ángel Di Maria aren’t slowing down whatsoever. According to Fabrizio Romano, Di Maria wants to play “at least one more season” in Europe, and that appears to include the possibility of it being in Turin. Talks between Juventus and Di Maria “are progressing,” according to Romano, as PSG continues to give him the silent treatment regarding staying in Paris beyond this season.

Goal Italia’s Romeo Agresti reported earlier in the week that Juventus have prepared a one-year contract with an option for a second season with a salary of €7 million.

The interesting part of the Di Maria rumors suddenly coming to be is that they are a stark contrast in which we’ve heard what Juve want to reportedly achieve this summer — namely getting younger and not have a roster with older players being paid such high salaries. You throw in the rumors of what Juventus are reportedly offering to Di Maria and Paul Pogba, and that is pretty much going away from the “get young, get less expensive” mindset we figured Maurizio Arrivabene and Federico Cherubini were going to take this summer.

At least in part, right?

There is no denying Di Maria has quality even if he’s not at the heights he once was when he first arrived in Paris the same summer in which Juventus signed a certain young Argentine named Paulo Dybala who would become Di Maria’s national team teammate. Even at the age of 34, Di Maria had the most assists of any Paris Saint-Germain player not named Lionel Messi or Kylian Mbappé, recording six assists and four goals in 25 league games (18 starts) this season for the French champions.

We don’t know where he might fit on the Juventus depth chart, and may not know until we see how the rest of the summer transfer window develops. Is he coming into fill the minutes of somebody like Federico Bernardeschi? Is he going to be actually relied on to be a creative source in the way that Juan Cuadrado has been the last few years? Could he be a short-term player to fill the bridge between the 2022-23 season and future business a summer or two down the road? It’s all ... unknown right now.