Giovanni Carnevali’s arrival as Juventus chief executive is rapidly reshaping the club’s entire management structure. With the new administration comes a clear need for a new transfer market figure — and according to Tuttosport, all signs point firmly towards Matteo Tognozzi, a man who knows every detail of Juventus having spent seven years leading their scouting operation before becoming a sporting director in his own right.
The Problem Carnevali Is Solving
One of the defining failures of the previous regime was the inability of the club’s various directors to establish clear boundaries around their own roles. Giorgio Chiellini was forced to deal with footballing matters despite wishing to follow a more political path within the club. François Modesto found himself acting as technical director without adding real value. And Marco Ottolini, who only arrived at the Continassa in January after an interminable selection process, was given only intermittent opportunities to operate in the transfer market, spending much of his time trying to rebuild a scouting network that had been recklessly dismantled before his arrival.
Of those figures, only Modesto will be leaving. Ottolini, by contrast, will remain — he is well regarded within the club, possesses genuine talent-identification expertise, and his continued presence will be valuable both in bringing players in and, critically, moving them on. Under Carnevali, however, a new dedicated transfer market figure is required above him.
Tognozzi: Backed by Chiellini, Spalletti — and Elkann Himself
Tognozzi currently serves as sporting director at Rio Ave, and before that held the same role at Granada — both clubs within the Marinakis ownership group, which also includes Nottingham Forest. He had already held initial conversations with Juventus towards the end of last season, but Comolli’s explicit veto on his return meant those talks went no further.
The landscape has changed entirely. Tognozzi’s name has been mentioned positively by multiple parties inside the club, reportedly including John Elkann himself. Both Spalletti and Chiellini would welcome his return to the Continassa, and Tognozzi himself would be delighted to take on the challenge under the new Carnevali administration.
The outstanding complication is his contract. Tognozzi remains under a two-year agreement with Rio Ave and enjoys an excellent relationship with the club’s ownership. Extracting him from that deal will require diplomacy — but Juventus intend to clarify the timeline within the week, with the expectation that the impasse can be resolved within days.
The Alternatives — and Ottolini’s Future Role
Should the Tognozzi move prove impossible to complete, the alternatives in the frame include Ricky Massara, Mehdi Benatia, and Giovanni Rossi — the latter having previously worked alongside Carnevali at Sassuolo, though he is considered the least likely outcome.
As for Ottolini, his role under the new structure would be focused on what he does best: rebuilding Juventus’s scouting department — a complex, demanding, long-term project already begun in recent months but far from complete. It was Tognozzi himself, in fact, who first brought Ottolini to Turin back in 2018, making the prospect of the two working in tandem once again a natural fit within Carnevali’s new structure.
A Club Being Rebuilt From the Ground Up
Piece by piece, Carnevali is assembling the management team that Juventus desperately need. After a year in which overlapping responsibilities, unclear chains of command, and a broken relationship between the boardroom and the dugout undermined everything the club tried to do, the clarity of purpose now emerging at the Continassa represents a significant and overdue step forward.
