Adin Licina is in a hurry, because his talent and everything around it demand it. The logic of the path he has taken with Juventus is colliding with that of the international market, where clubs would be ready to bet on and invest in the 2007-born player immediately.
A Running Start
The teenager has had a strong run-up this season. After 13 appearances for Next Gen and a summer pre-season with Luciano Spalletti, he moved on loan to Cremonese in Serie B. Juventus considered the step appropriate before letting him make his definitive assault on the top level.
The Impact at Cremonese
His arrival at the grey-and-red club was explosive. He scored on his Coppa Italia debut against Parma, then scored and set up a goal in his first league game against Padova. A period of adjustment followed, for him and for the team, though not without flashes of class. It lasted until a friendly at the Continassa against Juventus themselves, which cost him a fractured left wrist. He was operated on immediately at J Medical.
The Landshut-born number 10 was crowned best young player in Serie B at the first Gianluca Vialli Award. He found the net again in the most recent in-house friendly between Pecchia’s side and the Cremonese Primavera, which finished 5–1.
Juventus’s Plan
Juventus know they hold a potential “craque”, but their faith in his undeniable gifts goes hand in hand with a wish not to burn him out. It is a mid-summer line of thinking that Licina understood and absorbed through gritted teeth. He accepted his “Erasmus” in the second tier knowing it was meant to enrich his experience and, above all, to lead to a return. Any study abroad, by definition, includes one.
In his great ambitions and the initial plans, that return should happen with no further stops. But if that immediate reintegration proves hypothetical, the “diabolical temptations” of the market creep in. Bayer Leverkusen, Leipzig and Brighton are pressing for Adin and knocking insistently at Juventus’s door, with January already in view. They are ready to open their wallets for a modern profile on the launch pad, whom the Old Lady snapped up on a free transfer from Bayern Munich last February.
How He Came to Turin
It was a happy intuition of Next Gen Area head Claudio Chiellini, helped by the work of the agency Leaderbrock, the same one that brought Yildiz to Italy in summer 2022. Mindful of that earlier setback, Bayern had a pre-emption right inserted, along with a 30% cut of any future resale.
Why Juventus Aren’t Selling
Parting with him now, before even measuring his impact in Serie A, would mean giving up at the best moment a technical and economic asset that is still to be discovered. For that reason, in the club’s assessment, the moment to sell has not yet come. Juventus do not intend to give up their plans for the German-born attacking midfielder, who is also being courted by the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team.
For Licina, establishing himself at Juventus alongside his great friend Kenan is a genuine dream, second only to becoming the top-level player he promises to be. Carnevali and Massara would like to see him explode in their hands while controlling the timing of the detonation right to the end. But with some devices, that isn’t always possible.
