What looked like a routine Wednesday in late July at the Continassa turned into the most significant day of Juventus’s entire summer. In a matter of hours, Giovanni Carnevali and Frederic Massara concluded two deals simultaneously — Randal Kolo Muani from PSG and Kerim Alajbegovic from Bayer Leverkusen — for a combined investment of approximately €80 million. After weeks of frustration, deadlock, and patient persistence, the new Juventus has announced itself.
The Kolo Muani Deal: A Year of Waiting, Rewarded
The Juventus-Kolo Muani saga has finally reached its happy conclusion. After taking him on loan in January 2025, pursuing him fruitlessly last summer, and watching a second attempt in January 2026 collapse in equally painful fashion, Juventus have now agreed a definitive deal with PSG. The structure is a paid loan of €4 million with an obligation to purchase — triggered by qualification for European competition next season — set at €34 million, with a further €10 million in bonuses, four of which are considered readily achievable.
Kolo Muani’s first half-season at Juventus, from January to June 2025, ended with 8 goals and 1 assist in 16 Serie A appearances — the kind of return that convinced Spalletti he was the man to lead the attack and prompted an entire summer’s worth of pursuit to bring him back permanently.
Alajbegovic: The Coup Nobody Saw Coming
Alongside the striker deal, Carnevali landed one of the most coveted young talents in European football in the same 24-hour window. The agreement with Bayer Leverkusen for Kerim Alajbegovic is a permanent transfer worth €30 million fixed plus €5 million in bonuses and a percentage of any future resale.
Carnevali executed a blitz that beat a long queue of European clubs to the signature of the 18-year-old, who had emerged as one of the World Cup’s outstanding performers.
How Spalletti Plans to Use Them Both
Spalletti’s tactical vision is clear: Alajbegovic will play as a trequartista behind Kolo Muani — not as a wide player, which means his arrival does not threaten the roles of Zhegrova, Boga, or Yıldız. The objective is to build a dynamic, high-tempo 4-2-3-1 — one that transforms into a 3-2-5 in possession — giving Spalletti the forward movement, depth of running, and creative unpredictability that was so conspicuously absent last season.
Whether Alajbegovic could occasionally be deployed centrally behind Kolo Muani is not impossible — Spalletti is known to experiment — but the primary role is the number ten position, where his combination of dribbling, creativity, and goal threat in tight spaces makes him an almost perfect fit for the system the manager has been trying to build since his arrival at the Continassa.
The Price of Ambition — and the Demand That Follows
The scale of Wednesday’s investment carries an implicit message that Vocalelli articulates with precision in La Gazzetta dello Sport: a club that spends €80 million on two attackers in a single afternoon — operating under a UEFA Settlement Agreement and with Champions League revenue absent — has made a statement that can only be validated by returning to Europe’s elite competition. The arrival of Kolo Muani and Alajbegovic obliges Juventus to raise their ambitions and return to the Champions League. These are not Europa League players. This is a Champions League attack.
The new Juventus is taking shape. The bar has been raised. The work that remains — a goalkeeper, a midfielder, the defensive reinforcements still pending — must now be completed in the knowledge that anything less than a Champions League return would represent a failure entirely inconsistent with the ambition of what has already been invested.
