With just nine days remaining before Dušan Vlahović’s contract at Juventus expires, the situation has suddenly become considerably more complicated — and considerably more urgent. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Besiktas are pushing hard to take the Serbian striker to Istanbul, with new manager Vincenzo Italiano having identified him as his absolute number one priority, drawing on the exceptional professional relationship the two built together at Fiorentina.
An Offer That Blows Juventus Out of the Water
The Turkish club have assembled a transfer budget in excess of €150 million for this summer’s campaign, and they view Vlahović as the marquee signing around which to rebuild their continental ambitions. To make it happen, they have placed a remarkable financial proposal on the table: €10 million per season, plus a signing bonus of at least €5 million.
That figure comfortably exceeds Juventus’s own final offer — a one-year renewal at approximately €8 million all-in, including bonuses — and arrives at precisely the moment when Carnevali was hoping to bring negotiations to a conclusion.
Why Italiano Is the Decisive Factor
This is not simply a financial assault. The Besiktas interest has a deeply personal dimension. Italiano, who recently arrived in Istanbul having previously managed Bologna, worked with Vlahović during the defining period of the striker’s career at Fiorentina. The numbers from their time together between August 2021 and January 2022 are extraordinary: 20 goals and 4 assists in just 24 appearances across Serie A and the Coppa Italia — the form that convinced Juventus to pay approximately €80 million to bring him to Turin that same January.
Italiano has already contacted Vlahović personally to explain the Besiktas project, the club’s ambitions, and the central role he envisages for the striker. For an attacker who has never recaptured the heights of those six months in Florence, the prospect of reuniting with the manager who brought out the very best in him carries genuine emotional weight — and should not be underestimated.
Vlahović’s European Dream — and Its Limits
The fundamental issue facing Vlahović is that the elite European clubs he has been targeting — Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Chelsea among them — have all concluded that his salary demands are simply too high. The free agency window has not delivered the dream destination he and his father Miloš were banking on, leaving him in an increasingly uncomfortable position as the clock ticks towards 30 June.
Vlahović is thought to have not yet given Besiktas a definitive answer. At 26 and in the prime of his career, he continues to harbour the ambition of competing at the very highest level of European club football — and is reportedly asking the Turkish club to give him a little more time, treating them as a serious option should no concrete proposal from a top club materialise.
Where Juventus Stand Now
For Carnevali, the arrival of Besiktas’s offer creates a dilemma. Accepting Vlahović’s departure on a free transfer would end the matter cleanly but leave Spalletti short of a proven centre-forward heading into a critical summer. Fighting to keep him would require matching or approaching a financial commitment the club’s UEFA Settlement Agreement makes extremely difficult to justify.
Juventus have not abandoned the pursuit entirely — Sorloth and Kolo Muani remain the primary attacking targets regardless of the Vlahović outcome. But the clock is running, the competition from Istanbul is real, and Carnevali must now decide whether to make one final push or accept that this chapter of Vlahović’s Juventus story has come to its natural end.
