The striker saga that has dominated Juventus’s summer is entering its most critical phase — and for the first time, a genuine and concrete alternative to Randal Kolo Muani has moved from the background to the foreground. According to Tuttosport, Juventus have reactivated their interest in Jean-Philippe Mateta of Crystal Palace as the PSG negotiations remain deadlocked on a fee that the bianconeri simply cannot reach.
The Numbers That Are Blocking the Kolo Muani Deal
The financial impasse is starkly clear. Carnevali has moved Juventus’s offer as far as €38 million — structured as an onerous loan with a conditional obligation to purchase, triggered by qualification for European competition next season. PSG, whose internal valuation of Kolo Muani has been reset upward following the €73 million sale of Gonçalo Ramos to AC Milan, are not prepared to go below €50 million. The gap is €12 million and neither club appears close to bridging it.
It is within that space of €12 million that Mateta’s name has re-emerged. The French international — who pipped Kolo Muani to the France World Cup squad in a highly publicised selection decision — is now effectively competing with his compatriot for the same shirt at the Allianz Stadium.
Why Mateta Appeals — and What He Offers
Mateta is one of European football’s most productive strikers when fit. His winner in Crystal Palace’s Conference League final triumph last season confirmed his big-game credentials, and his physical profile — powerful, aerial, relentless in his pressing — fits the demands Spalletti has repeatedly articulated for the centre-forward role in his system.
The financial terms of a deal with Crystal Palace would almost certainly come in below PSG’s asking price, and the structure of an agreement would be more straightforward to engineer within Juventus’s UEFA Settlement Agreement constraints. For a club that needs to complete its attacking rebuild before departing for the Asian pre-season tour on 2 August, Mateta’s accessibility is a meaningful advantage over the seemingly immovable PSG position.
Kolo Muani Is Not Yet Off the Table
The reactivation of the Mateta option does not mean the Kolo Muani pursuit is definitively over. The French striker’s personal commitment to returning to Turin has never wavered, and Juventus continue to regard him as their first preference. But with the window of opportunity narrowing and the squad scheduled to travel to Asia in less than a fortnight, Carnevali and Massara cannot allow one unresolved negotiation to paralyse the entire attacking rebuild. Mateta is the insurance policy — and the moment it becomes clear that PSG will not move, he could become the signing.
