Reports: Juventus, Nicolo Fagioli in ‘advanced talks’ about new contract

As Juventus is likely sitting on a plane right now flying back to Italy after spending nearly two weeks in the United States, one of the brightest of spots to come out of said tour was undoubtedly the play of young midfielder Nicolo Fagioli. Despite his young age, he looked composed and confident while all three games, the last two coming against two of the biggest clubs in the world.

All the while, as has been the case for weeks now, we’ve been hearing that Fagioli — who was named the Serie B young player of the year last season while on loan at now-promoted Cremonese — is in the midst of contract talks with the club that he’s grown up at. And it just so happens that now with the 2022-23 season very much on the cusp of getting started, things are looking good on the contract front, too.

According to Italian journalist Nicolo Schira and Calciomercato, Juventus and Fagioli’s agent have progressed in contract talks with more talks scheduled to try and close the agreement expected in the near future. The new deal would see the 21-year-old Fagioli sign on through 2026, giving him the long-term contract that he has been seeking for what feels like the last couple of months ever since the Serie B season ended and Cremonese earned promotion.

For the length of the contract negotiations, there have been reports saying that as talks progressed, Fagioli — who was one of the better players on Juve’s U.S. tour — wanted to be assured that he would be a part of this season’s roster rather than sent out on loan for a second consecutive year. That was before Juventus saw two of its more dynamic players to injury, with Weston McKennie set to miss at least a month with a separated shoulder and Paul Pogba still figuring out how he wants to deal with his torn meniscus.

It is believed that Fagioli will also see a sizable raise in his annual salary.

Calciomercato’s report goes so far as to say that Fagioli has passed all of the necessary tests during the preseason tour and will be a part of Juventus’ roster until at least January. And with the recent injuries to Pogba and McKennie, there’s a real chance that the former Juve youth product could see a good amount of minutes during the first few weeks of the 2022-23 season. That definitely doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility, especially with Adrien Rabiot and Arthur both looking like they could leave Juventus within the next week or two.

And if that happens, Fagioli’s status would only further be confirmed for the upcoming season.