Theo Hernández is making phone calls. According to Tuttosport, the French international left-back has offered himself to two Italian clubs simultaneously — Juventus and Napoli — as he searches for an exit from AC Milan and his next major challenge. For Juventus, the approach carries an immediately compelling dimension: Frederic Massara, the club’s new Chief Football Officer, is one of the people closest to Hernández in Italian football.
The Massara Connection — A Scudetto Bond That Has Endured
The relationship between Hernández and Massara is not a distant professional acquaintance. It was forged during one of the most celebrated chapters in recent Italian football history — the 2021-22 season at AC Milan, when Massara was sporting director and Hernández was the most dynamic left-back in Serie A. That championship-winning campaign brought the two men together in the most meaningful way possible — as architects, in their different roles, of a genuinely historic achievement.
Massara’s arrival at Juventus has now opened a channel that simply would not have existed six weeks ago. Hernández knows what Massara demands, trusts his football intelligence, and has been encouraged by the quality of the project being built at the Continassa under Carnevali and Spalletti.
Where Hernández Would Fit — and the Cambiaso Equation
The positional logic at Juventus is straightforward. Andrea Cambiaso, linked with Chelsea and Barcelona throughout the summer, would need to depart to create both the squad space and the financial room for Hernández to arrive. Should Cambiaso’s transfer be concluded in the coming weeks — at the €40 million figure Juventus have consistently sought — the funds generated would go a significant way towards meeting the salary demands of one of Europe’s most coveted left-backs.
The complication, as with virtually every significant incoming target this summer, is wages. Hernández currently earns in the region of €8 million per year at Milan — a figure that sits above Juventus’s preferred ceiling and that will require either a meaningful reduction from the player’s side or the kind of creative contractual structuring at which Carnevali has excelled throughout this window.
Napoli Also in the Picture — Allegri a Factor
The Napoli dimension adds competitive pressure. Massimiliano Allegri’s reputation and tactical philosophy could appeal to a player of Hernández’s profile — one who thrives in a structured system with clear positional responsibilities. Whether Allegri’s Napoli or Spalletti’s Juventus offers the more compelling footballing proposition for the Frenchman will be one of the questions that shapes how this particular subplot develops.
On the last day of July, with the summer window at its halfway point and the squad preparing to depart for Asia, the arrival of Theo Hernández’s name into the conversation is the kind of late-window complication — or opportunity — that has defined every previous twist of this extraordinary summer at the Allianz Stadium.
