Reports: Juventus, Paul Pogba agree to personal terms

Il Polpo looks like he’s coming back to Turin for more than just a match or two in Europe or while on international duty.

Yep, it’s close to becoming a reality, folks.

According to Italian sources like Fabiana Della Valle of La Gazzetta dello Sport and Italian transfer reporter Nicolo Schira, Juventus have agreed to personal terms with soon-to-be free-agent midfielder Paul Pogba. Juventus and the 29-year-old Pogba have put the framework of a deal that would see him sign a three-year contract until 2025 and earn between €7.5 million or €8 million a season with the potential to push it to €10 million based on performance bonuses.

Della Valle says that only the final details remain to work out when it comes to Pogba’s contract, one that will make him one of the highest-paid players at the club.

The negotiations for the deal — and all of the chatter that has since surrounded it — kicked into overdrive when Juventus and Pogba’s representatives, including his lawyer who has taken over for the late Mino Raiola, met in Turin prior to Monday’s game against Lazio.

Since the meeting, a lot of the talk has been about Pogba wanting to take his time and to evaluate the offers in which he had on the table. They were basically two kinds of opportunities — one from Juventus and one from Paris Saint-Germain, with one very much the more lucrative one and the other with more of an emotional pull based on where Pogba played his football before returning to Manchester United in 2017.

Less than a week later, it looks like we’ve gotten our answer.

Or at least that is what the Italian press is telling us.

Re-signing Pogba on a second free transfer — although who knows how free this one really is knowing that Raiola’s agency still very much has a role in the deal — would give Juventus the kind of midfielder that they have sorely lacked essentially since Pogba went back to Manchester in that 2017 deal worth €105 million. There is obvious risk that comes with bringing Pogba back to the club — the obvious one being his extensive injury history over the last few years. But there is obviously potential rewards as well, especially when you consider a few of the other midfielders — namely Manuel Locatelli and Denis Zakaria — that Juve have added over the last 10 months.

The general understand by those who are reporting that the contract terms have been agreed to is that the deal is not far away from becoming a reality. And knowing that Juventus’ season ends this weekend, we could be in for a very interesting start to the offseason based on what we’re hearing now.