Reports: Bayern Munich join the race to sign Matthijs de Ligt

Ever since the beginning of the Matthijs de Ligt rumor mill being kicked into overdrive, there’s been one club that has been looked at as the frontrunner from the very beginning. Chelsea have been the leaders in the clubhouse since all of this began, and were the odds-on favorite to sign the incredibly talented Dutch defender if you were to ask pretty much anybody who had been following things over the last two weeks.

... but is that somebody else’s entrance music?!

According to Sky Sport Germany, Bayern Munich are trying to jump from the top rope and hijack Chelsea’s move for de Ligt, who looks very likely to leave Juventus this summer no matter where the end destination may end up being. There is no real guess as to where Bayern is in the stage of negotiations with Juventus for de Ligt, but Sky Germany believe that the transfer fee will be in the €60-€80 million range — something that seems rather different than what the Italian press believes.

Italian journalist Nico Schira tweeted just after Sky Germany’s report that Juve still want upward of €100 million for de Ligt, who has a reported €125 million release clause that kicked in this summer. Goal Italia’s Romeo Agresti added that while Bayern are very much in the race to sign de Ligt, it’s still Chelsea that are the leaders at this moment.

De Ligt wants to join Chelsea! De Ligt wants to join Bayern! Apparently he’s going to sign for both of these clubs this summer and then there will be a battle to the death for who actually gets to see him wear their jersey next season.

With Chelsea’s interest very much there and now Bayern Munich — and possibly Manchester United, but something tells me they’ve got a couple of three things to worry about right now — this is very much shaping up to be a summer in which Juventus can have some leverage and, as we like to call it, create a bidding war of sorts for a very in-demand asset in de Ligt. Just how much these two — and possibly three — clubs are willing to stretch things when it comes to how much they could pay for de Ligt is very much something that could be dictated by how firm of a stance Juve take in their demands. And if Schira’s reporting is on the money, then both Chelsea and Bayern still have some distance to make up in terms of their bidding.

But the fact there is now very much a second club in the running for de Ligt makes for that much more of an interesting couple of weeks here as players start to trickle in back from their holidays and preseason training starts up. Not that de Ligt is going to be a problem because he’s very much the opposite of that, but unless something happens rather quickly over the next few days then there’s going to be some negotiations taking place with de Ligt on the training pitch at Continassa.

We’re in for some interesting times, folks. And a bidding war seems to be in the making for one of Juventus’ most valuable assets.