OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Enzo Barrenechea joins Frosinone on loan

One of the biggest benefits from Juventus creating the Next Gen squad is that players who have had to be called up to provide depth haven’t been asked to make such a giant leap like in previous years when they were jumping straight up from the primavera level. While the likes of Fabio Miretti and Nicolo Fagioli are the headliners of that group, others have seen their senior-level debuts come their way over the last couple of years thanks to a call up from the Next Gen squad

Enzo Barrenechea is one of those players, making his debut last season before eventually being promoted on a full time basis in the spring.

Now, the young Argentine is heading out to get his first big amount of Serie A experience.

Juventus announced Tuesday that the 22-year-old Barrenechea has joined newly promoted Serie A side Frosinone on loan for the 2023-24 season. He is another one of a handful of young players who are expected to head out on loan to Serie A sides that will likely be in a relegation battle, but Barrenechea he has his first major chance to show he can hang in Italy’s top flight away from the club he has been at since the summer of 2020. (We choose to forget most of the things going on during that time, which is pretty understandable.)

Unlike other loan moves Juve have made in the last week and are expected to make official over the final two weeks of the summer transfer window, there is no option included for Frosinone to buy Barrenechea outright come next summer.

Barrenechea made a total of 74 appearances between the primavera, Next Gen and senior squad during his three years at Juventus. He made his senior debut last November as a late sub in Juve’s loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League group stage. It was 3 ¹⁄₂ months later in which he made his first start — and Serie A debut — at the senior level in the late-February Derby della Mole against city rival Torino.

In April, Barrenechea is promoted to the senior squad for the rest of the season.

Now he gets his chance to potentially get regular playing time in Serie A under Frosinone manager Eusebio Di Francesco, who took over for former Juve fullback Fabio Grosso in June after he earned the club the Serie B title with plenty of room to spare.

Frosinone have also been linked with a loan move for Kaio Jorge after the Brazilian marked his return after missing over 550 days with a hat trick in the Juve-Next Gen friendly last week.