OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Luca Pellegrini joins Eintracht Frankfurt on loan

On the same day that Juventus announced the signing of Filip Kostic, his former club looks to have secured the guy who will take his space on the roster.

And it just so happens that said player is coming from Kostic’s new club.

In a move that could be unofficially connected to Kostic’s move to Juventus but kinda in a wink-wink, nod-nod kind of way, young Italian fullback Luca Pellegrini signed on loan with Eintracht Frankfurt, the two clubs announced Friday night. This will be the third time (and third different club) that Pellegrini — who is in the last year of his current contract and was rumored to be potentially leaving Juve for virtually the entire summer — will go out on loan since Juventus signed him in the much-talked about swap deal with Leonardo Spinazzola during the summer of 2019.

Over the last couple of months, the Rome-born 23-year-old Pellegrini has been linked with moves to lower-table Serie A clubs and then finally Eintracht Frankfurt over the last couple of days since the Kostic deal was essentially wrapped up. That’s after Pellegrini was linked to a handful of Premier League clubs, with nothing truly materializing past rumors of interest and low-level discussions, according to previous reports in the Italian media.

In the end, the Bundesliga is Pellegrini’s landing spot.

Not exactly the place many — or any — folks expected him to go a few months ago when the rumors of him potentially leaving during the summer transfer window began, but here we are. And like a few times in the recent past, Pellegrini is heading to a club in which Juventus just did business with in a move that isn’t directly connected with the deal that just saw a player arrive in Turin but is certainly related to it now that it’s all said and done.

In his one season actually playing for Juventus, Pellegrini appeared in 21 games in all competitions. The overall performance level was OK, but nothing all that special and clearly not enough to convince Juventus that he is a player to keep around beyond this summer. Pellegrini recorded all of one assist in this 21 appearances, which isn’t great for a fullback who played in that many games.

So now Pellegrini will look to make more of an impression in Frankfurt and potentially use his season-long loan as an audition for Eintracht or other clubs in the future.