How Juventus Can Afford To Buy Dusan Vlahovic

For all intents and purposes, it’s a done deal. On Friday, January 28, 2022, Dusan Vlahovic arrived to take his medical with Juventus and sign a contract worth around €7 million ($7.79m) per year. 

Various transfer experts including the extremely reliable trio of Fabrizio Romano, Romeo Agresti and Gianluca Di Marzio have all reported those details in various forms, and when they all agree, official confirmation isn’t usually far behind. 

Fabiana Della Valle of La Gazzetta dello Sport deserves enormous credit for being the first to insist that Juve would push to sign Vlahovic in the summer, long before anyone else believed it was possible. 

There is a nice bonus to the fact that January 28 is also Vlahovic’s 22nd birthday, but with the Bianconeri reportedly set to pay Fiorentina a €75 million ($83.51m) fee for him, there have been many asking how Juve will fund such a move. 

Those questions are understandable given the fact that before the news of the sensational Vlahovic transfer broke, the Turin giants appeared to be shopping in a much more low cost bracket. 

Indeed, earlier this month, the names being linked to Juve were Manchester United’s Edison Cavani (h/t Reuters) and Anthony Martial or Divock Origi of Liverpool (h/t Football Italia) or Edison Cavani. Instead they are set to commit a huge amount of money into signing one of the most promising talents in Europe. 

We took a closer look at Vlahovic’s potential in this previous column, but just how were Juventus able to make such a move? 

The first and most obvious answer was the exit of Cristiano Ronaldo. Had the Portuguese megastar opted to see out this season in Turin, he would’ve seen out the final year of his contract.

That would’ve meant writing off approximately €25 million ($27.82m) in amortised value, as well as paying Ronaldo around €60 million ($66.78m) in pre-tax salary. Instead, according to Juve’s own website, they received a fee of €15 million ($16.6m) from United. 

The statement confirming that also revealed that the loss was therefore reduced to €14 million ($15.58m), saving the club around €71 million ($79.01m). Factor in reports that the fee for Vlahovic will be paid over three years and suddenly the deal becomes far more palatable. 

Of course, that would still represent a loss, but that too has been covered by a move the board made following October’s shareholder meeting. First agreed in August 2021 according to a press release on the official Juventus website, the directors voted in favour of a €400 million ($445.12m) capital increase, raised by the sale of more shares.

This would, according to the statement, “strengthen the Company’s equity” in order to help with “consolidating the economic and financial balance, maintaining sports competitiveness and increasing the visibility of the Juventus brand.”

Deemed a necessary step to help ease the financial burden of the Coronavirus pandemic, the club completed that capital increase by December 21, and has clearly wasted little time in utilising those funds on the transfer market. 

Dusan Vlahovic is a great move on the field, made possible by swift and decisive action behind the scenes.