Report: Juventus, Genoa close to finalizing deal for Andrea Cambiaso

As is customary when a club gets relegated to Serie B, the summer mercato becomes a place in which other clubs who remained in Italy’s top flight do a little bit of bargain hunting. Almost in the same way in which folks tend to go through somebody’s desk after said person just left the office for one reason or another — you’re hunting for the chance to find something good.

With the need to get the squad younger and obviously take advantage of any kind of bargain they can find, Juventus looks like they’ve gotten one of those deals from a club heading to Serie B.

According to SportItalia on Tuesday, Juventus and recently-relegated Genoa are close to closing a deal for young Italian wingback Andrea Cambiaso, who has been a reported target of some of the biggest clubs in Italy over the last few weeks. Juventus will reportedly play around €4 million for the 22-year-old and also send young defender Radu Dragusin — who spent last season on loan at Sampdoria and then Venezia — to the Marassi as part of the deal.

It is unclear if Cambiaso — who made his debut with Genoa’s senior team during the 2020-21 season — will stay with Juventus or go out on loan for the 2022-23 campaign. However, with his anticipated arrival and if he does stay with Juve for the upcoming season, it could very well free up for the departure of Luca Pellegrini, who has been rumored to be heading toward the exit door with a handful of Premier League clubs interested in signing him this summer.

Cambiaso, despite his young age and relative inexperience at the senior level prior to this past season, finished with the fourth-highest amount of minutes played on a Genoa squad that very much was worthy of its relegation to Serie B. Cambiaso appeared in 26 games, with 21 of those being starts, for a total of just under 1,800 minutes. In this 26 games, Cambiaso scored one goal and recorded a team-best total of four assists.

With rumors of Pellegrini’s exit still very much alive, you have to think that Cambiaso could very well be in for a spot on Juventus’ roster next season. That is hard to know for sure, though, considering if Alex Sandro is staying or leaving still very much a question mark and that his age, high salary and poor form over the last few years making it pretty tough to move him during the summer transfer window.

But, for now, it’s looking like Juve are about to add a young defender who can potentially develop into something on the left wing. The next step is still very much anybody’s guess.