While Juventus’s headline pursuits of Randal Kolo Muani and Alexander Sorloth continue to dominate the conversation, Tuttosport reveals that the club’s scouting team are quietly using the World Cup as an opportunity to identify lower-cost contingency options — and two names in particular have caught their attention: PSV’s Ricardo Pepi and Manchester City’s Omar Marmoush.
The Primary Targets Remain Stuck
The headline business is not moving as quickly as Juventus would like. Negotiations to bring Kolo Muani back to Turin have been ongoing for some time, and the changeover from Damien Comolli to Giovanni Carnevali has done nothing to alter the picture — Juventus remain genuinely keen on a second chapter with the French striker. Sorloth, meanwhile, is in limbo: personal terms with the player have long been agreed, but the gap between Juventus and Atletico Madrid on a transfer fee remains significant — perhaps too significant to bridge easily.
Pepi: Giuntoli’s Old Target Resurfaces
Against that backdrop, Juventus have turned their attention to Ricardo Pepi, the USA international who started against Australia in place of an injured Christian Pulisic, with a strong recommendation from his international teammate Weston McKennie. Pepi is not currently a guaranteed starter under Mauricio Pochettino, but he possesses the attributes to make a genuine step up — and he was previously a player of considerable interest to former sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli, a connection that could now resurface under the new administration.
Currently at PSV Eindhoven, the Texan striker is coming off an outstanding season: 16 goals in the Eredivisie and 3 in the Champions League. A robust, well-built central striker, he represents exactly the kind of profile that could round out Juventus’s attacking options. Crucially, PSV’s valuation is far from prohibitive — somewhere in the region of €25 to €30 million. He impressed even Antonio Conte in October, when Napoli suffered a chastening defeat in Eindhoven, contributing a goal and an assist. For now, Pepi is viewed as a player for the future — a smart, lower-cost option who could quietly establish himself at the club should the Kolo Muani deal fall through.
Marmoush: A Cautionary Tale at Manchester City
The second name on Marco Ottolini’s radar is altogether more eye-catching: Omar Marmoush, the Egyptian international and long-time attacking partner of Mohamed Salah. Marmoush is a player Spalletti rates highly, having been struck by the qualities he showed during his time at Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga. Since then, however, his career has stalled. Pep Guardiola paid €75 million for him in a January window that brought Manchester City more pain than joy, and in the Premier League he has struggled to make an impact, overshadowed by the relentless competitiveness of sharing an attack with Erling Haaland. His overall tally at the Etihad reads just 16 goals in 61 appearances.
Marmoush did show signs of life with a solid performance on his World Cup opener against Belgium in Seattle, and Manchester City — under the watchful eye of incoming manager Enzo Maresca — will need to make a decision on his long-term future. Selling him outright without accepting a significant loss looks extremely difficult; a loan, allowing him to rebuild his reputation on the international stage, is the more realistic route.
Why These Two Names Make Sense for Juventus
Juventus are monitoring Marmoush closely, much as they have done with Uruguay’s Darwin Núñez, to assess whether he could become a viable late-window option — an instant-impact addition rather than a long-term project. The broader context matters here: with David and Openda both still needing to be moved on, no imminent breakthrough on Vlahović’s situation, and every euro spent on a permanent transfer now scrutinised under Juventus’s tight financial framework, Carnevali and his recruitment team cannot realistically compete for football’s headline World Cup performers. But with careful, attentive scouting, they can identify intelligent, lower-cost solutions — and Pepi and Marmoush both sit firmly within that select bracket of names the club find genuinely appealing.
