July 14, (THEWILL) – The impressive display of Juventus forward Federico Chiesa at the victorious Euro 2020 for the Italian side has seen an incredible level of interest in the key player of the Old Lady team coming from some of the best football clubs on the continent.
The most recent of these has come from the UEFA Champions League winners Chelsea. The English Premier League side have approached Juventus to negotiate a transfer for Chiesa but the former Serie A champions turned their request down with a succinct rejection.
Chiesa turned up an enthusiastic season in his debut campaign at Turin for Juventus after securing his place in the squad in a move from Fiorentina. He was instrumental to 16 goals, eight goals and eight assists, in the 30 games he played and featured prominently for Juve in Europe as well.
But the player shot to continental prominence with his performance for Italy during Euro. As one of the best attacking players of the champion team, Chiesa was a constant threat with his pace, ball control and attacking prowess. He very nearly got a goal in the final before he was forced off with an injury.
This display brought attention to him and Chelsea have dug into their financial chest with what reports have called a sizeable €100m to incentivise Juve to let Chiesa move to Stamford Bridge before other big clubs make their moves ahead of the 2021/2022 football season. The surprise is that Chelsea was in the news for Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland, which is still being worked out, before this broke.
Juve however ruled out talks on offers for the Italian forward. The strategic move for the Serie A giants is an observant monitoring of the transfer clouds circling around their Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo, who appears ready to exit the Turin club when it is right for him. Juve will want to rebuild immediately around Chiesa should that happen.
The return of Massimiliano Allegri to oversee their overhaul will be the perfect foil to do this rebuilding and Juve cannot allow talent like Chiesa leave when they are in a position to benefit more from his presence whether together with Ronaldo or not at the Old Lady.
Whether Chelsea will persist is not immediately certain. They have proven to be stubborn with their chase of talents and they have the purse to keep it up until they get their player. This is the case with their return to Dortmund in another attempt to prise Haaland from the grasp of the Bundesliga club and they are ready with as much as £150 million.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
