Randal Kolo Muani is not merely back at Juventus. He is, as Tuttosport’s Stefano Lanzo writes with considerable precision, the most expensive French player in the club’s entire history — a list of predecessors that includes Zidane, Platini, Henry, and Trezeguet. The responsibility that comes with that distinction does not appear to weigh on him. If anything, it fuels him.
Settled into the Perth leg of the pre-season tour, surrounded by the warmth of supporters who mobbed the team’s hotel and filled Casa Juventus in the city centre, Kolo Muani gave the most complete interview of his brief Juventus career so far — and the words reveal a player who has come home, not simply arrived.
“I Was Very, Very, Very Happy — And Very, Very Proud”
Asked to describe the sensation of completing the transfer after a full year of pursuit, rejection, and renewed chase, Kolo Muani reached for a word he deploys repeatedly throughout the conversation — a triple repetition that speaks to something beyond diplomatic politeness. “Yes, I was aware of the situation. I spoke with my representatives, with my family. We thought about it carefully and found an agreement. I think it happened very quickly in the end — although during the transfer market it was a bit long. But we did what was necessary for me to return and I am very, very happy and very, very proud to be wearing this shirt again.”
During the months of separation — the difficult loan at Tottenham, the training sessions with PSG’s Under-19 squad — it was Locatelli, McKennie, and Thuram who kept the connection alive. “I had a really good relationship with everyone when I was here the first time. They welcomed me very well — and that allowed me to find the Randal from before. I am very, very happy to play with them.”
“I Knew It Was Going to Happen — During the Negotiation, I Understood”
Kolo Muani was asked whether there was a specific moment when he finally believed the return would materialise. His answer was revealing in its simplicity: “I think the moment was during the negotiation this summer. That is when I understood it was really going to happen.”
It was the summer that confirmed what the entire winter had suggested — that PSG would eventually blink, that Carnevali would find a way, that the gap between the two clubs’ positions was not permanent. From Kolo Muani’s side, the conviction never wavered. The Juventus pull, he has said on multiple occasions, was unlike anything he had felt before about a club.
“Spalletti Has a Plan for Me to Score Many Goals — I’m Ready for Everything He Asks”
The relationship between Kolo Muani and Luciano Spalletti is one of the most anticipated developments of the new Juventus season — a manager whose track record of unlocking strikers is extraordinary, working for the first time with a centre-forward who suits his system perhaps more precisely than any other he has worked with. The striker’s assessment of their early interaction was glowing.
“I was very, very happy that the manager showed this attachment, this desire for me to come. I think I know his way of coaching — I know what he wants from his strikers, what he asks. And wearing this shirt is simply an honour. I will be ready to do everything to give my maximum and show all my qualities.” On the information that Spalletti has a specific plan to maximise his goal-scoring: “I am very happy to hear it. If this is his method, excellent! After that I will be ready to listen to everything he has to say, all the advice he has to give. I will give everything for him. I am very, very happy. If this is the method, I am ready to give everything — including scoring as many goals as possible.”
On Yıldız: “A Pleasure to Play with Him — He Brings You Higher”
The partnership with Kenan Yıldız — the two having combined briefly in the Inter friendly — already carries an obvious creative chemistry. “It is a pleasure to play with him. As I have always said, he is an extraordinary player with uncommon qualities. It is simply a pleasure. We know very well what he is like — he brings you higher. I think we simply have to enjoy ourselves and adapt to him. He is truly, truly a great player.”
Tottenham: “I Had My Head Elsewhere — I Wanted to Come Back Here”
The uncomfortable Tottenham chapter received its most honest treatment yet. “There were several things that didn’t work. For me, it was something more personal. I think my head was a bit elsewhere — I wanted to come back to Juventus. And then it is an episode in a footballer’s career: not all seasons can be positive. For me it was a year in which I still learned something. I had my first injuries — but thankfully I recovered from all of that. Now it is a new season, a new chapter for me. A new version of me, you could say.”
“Henry, Ronaldo — the Players Who Made Children’s Eyes Shine”
On the idols who shaped his own hunger for goal-scoring, Kolo Muani offered a list that will resonate immediately with any supporter of football’s golden generation. “I have several. There was Zidane, Henry, strikers in general, Ronaldo. For me it was especially the attackers — those who scored the goals, who made children’s eyes shine.” It is a phrase that captures something essential about what football means to him, and why the centre-forward position carries so much personal weight.
Zidane, France, and the Europe League
On his World Cup exclusion and the beginning of Zinedine Zidane’s cycle as France manager, Kolo Muani was gracious without hiding the pain: “It is an honour that Zidane was chosen — but we must not forget the work done by Didier Deschamps. It was he who first trusted me, gave me my first minutes with the national shirt. I am very, very, very honoured to have played under his guidance.” On Zidane: “We will see how it goes. First of all I will concentrate on Juventus — I will try to score my goals, produce good performances, win points. And then we will see what comes next.”
On the Europa League — a competition Juventus must win or at least reach the final of to qualify directly for the Champions League: “It is a difficult competition, like the Champions League and all the other European competitions. It falls to us to prepare well. We will concentrate on the matches one at a time.”
Life Beyond Football: Series, Videogames, and French Music
And when the cameras are off and the boots are put away? “I am often with my loved ones — watching television, watching series, playing video games. Then I spend time with my family. I like being at home, not going out too much. I really like French music and American music. For films, I prefer action — they are what I enjoy most.”
It is the portrait of a footballer who is comfortable in his own company, grounded by family, and happiest when he does not need to perform. The kind of character, in short, who tends to produce his best football in the environment where he feels most at home. In Turin, after everything this summer has demanded of him, Randal Kolo Muani is finally home.
