The new Juventus could soon speak with a distinctly South American accent. The two names driving that possibility are Jhon Lucumí of Bologna — Luciano Spalletti’s explicit and emphatic defensive choice — and Matías Galarza of River Plate, a Paraguay international who has been proposed to the club in recent days as a low-cost solution to the playmaking void that has been visible throughout pre-season, including in Friday’s friendly against Inter.
Lucumí: The Countdown That Favours Juventus
Every day that passes in the Lucumí negotiation shifts the balance of power further in Juventus’s direction. With the Colombian’s contract at Bologna set to expire in just ten months — and having already turned down multiple renewal offers — the Emilian club faces the very real prospect of losing one of their most prized assets for nothing in June 2027. That looming free-agency is Carnevali’s most powerful negotiating tool.
Bologna opened the latest round of talks at €25 million — still, in Juventus’s view, far too high for a player with such limited contractual protection. No club interested in Lucumí has paid the €28 million release clause that officially expired on 16 July, and that tells its own story about how the market has valued him. Juventus’s current offer stands at €17 million — with the gap between the two positions now the subject of an intensified push planned for the week ahead.
The key to unlocking that gap may be Juan Cabal. Bologna’s sporting director Giovanni Sartori and director Marco Di Vaio are understood to be attracted by the left-footed Colombian full-back, who is available to leave Juventus this summer. Including Cabal as a makeweight alongside a cash component could bridge the financial distance and allow both clubs to reach an agreement they have so far been unable to formalise. Cabal could move in the opposite direction; Lucumí arrives as the defensive partner Spalletti has been requesting since day one.
There is an additional urgency: at least one significant English club is understood to be gathering information on Lucumí’s contractual situation. The risk of a Premier League intervention is real, and Juventus would rather conclude the deal this week than leave themselves exposed to a bidding war in the final fortnight of August.
Matías Galarza: A €6 Million Playmaker Worth a Serious Look
If Lucumí is the serious business, Galarza is the intriguing subplot. The 24-year-old Paraguayan midfielder — born in San Lorenzo, Argentina — was one of the more quietly impressive performers at the World Cup, orchestrating Paraguay’s run to the last 16 and demonstrating the kind of tempo control and forward-thinking distribution that Spalletti has consistently identified as a missing element in his midfield.
River Plate are willing to let him leave for just €6 million — a figure that, in the current market, is barely worth deliberating over for a club of Juventus’s size. Massara is well aware of the opportunity and is conducting his assessment.
The caveat is the same one that applies to every further midfield signing: exits must precede arrivals. Arthur, Koopmeiners, and Miretti all represent outstanding financial commitments and squad numbers that must be resolved before any new midfield investment — even one as modest as Galarza — can be added to the books. But at €6 million for a player who genuinely addresses the playmaking need that has been the most consistent weakness of this Juventus across every pre-season fixture, the deal is too appealing to simply ignore. The South American flavour of the new Juventus may yet be more pronounced than anyone predicted at the start of the summer.
