Reports: Juventus intensifying interest in Empoli’s Fabiano Parisi

While we don’t truly know what’s going on behind the scenes at Juventus these days, the rumor mill is telling something: the Bianconeri intend to address the long-standing issue of not upgrading the fullback/wingback positions in a major way.

We’ve already heard about Juventus’ reported interest in Leicester City’s Timothy Castagne. Now, Juve could very well do a little shopping a little closer to home.

According to reports from Tuttosport and SportItalia’s Alfredo Pedullà, Juventus have been in talks with Empoli about the potential signing of Italian fullback Fabiano Parisi. Tuttosport has described the talks as “intensifying” over recent days, while Pedullà notes that Empoli will not stand in the way of the 22-year-old fullback leaving the club this summer.

Lazio also has interest in signing Parisi this summer, while a potential deal could be struck for around €15 million, with Juve considering an attempt to insert a player or two — like, say, midfielder Filippo Ranocchia, who is back from a season on loan at Monza — into the deal.

Pedullà went as far as to say that Juventus will have even more motivation to sign Parisi if either Filip Kostic or Samuel Iling-Junior were to leave this summer. (As of right now, that doesn’t necessarily seem like a genuine possibility, so let’s just hope it stays that way.)

But what signing Parisi would mean for Juventus is simple: an actual natural left back being signed to compete for starting minutes alongside of Andrea Cambiaso, who is expected to be a part of next season’s squad after spending the 2022-23 campaign on loan at Bologna. With Alex Sandro’s potential departure despite an appearance clause extending his contract until 2024 and Mattia De Sciglio on the long-term injury list, Juve would be down to zero options in the former does indeed leave Turin at some point this summer.

If Max Allegri is committed to the 3-5-2 to begin next season, then there isn’t as pressing of a need for somebody to play on the left as there would be with a four-man backline, but the fact still remains that Juve need depth regardless of the formation that will be used.

And Parisi, who is part of Italy’s squad for the Under-21 Euros this summer, is a pretty solid option in terms of investing for the present and future.

Parisi started 33 games last season and recorded the second-most amount of minutes of any Empoli player. That’s nearly twice as many minutes as he played last season, with the young Italian adding a pair of goals to go with the loads of experience he picked up this past year.