Premier League side Newcastle United are reportedly interested in signing 24-year-old centre-back Merih Demiral from Juventus.
According to Calciomercato, Newcastle United have set their sights on a summer move for Juventus centre-back Merih Demiral, who spent the recently-concluded season on loan at fellow Serie A club Atalanta. The 24-year-old Turkish international joined Juventus in 2019 but has not been able to cement a spot in their starting XI.
After struggling for game time in two seasons with the Turin-based giants, where he made 32 appearances, he was loaned out to Atalanta. Demiral made 42 appearances for La Dea across all competitions but was not quite impressive at the Serie A club yet for them to decide on whether to sign him permanently or not.
The Bergamo-based club have the option to make the move permanent for €30 million and are expected to take a call in the next few days. If they decided against signing the 24-year-old permanently, Demiral will then return to Juventus.
In Turin, however, the 24-year-old could struggle to get regular game-time as he does not seem to be a part of manager Massimiliano Allegri’s plans. The Serie A giants may thus decide to offload him this summer to add transfer funds for potential summer arrival.
Juventus could ask for a fee between €40 million and €50 million for the Turkish defender. They are themselves in the market for a central defender and have been linked with a move for Napoli centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly.
The Bianconeri have identified Koulibaly as an able replacement for the outgoing Giorgio Chiellini and could make a €35 million move for him. Napoli could be convinced to sell the defender for that amount, as per the report.
Meanwhile, Newcastle United are preparing for an important summer. They are eager to reinforce almost every position with new owners pumping in money for summer deals. Manager Eddie Howe did a good job of dragging the Magpies from a tricky situation early in the Premier League season.
The former Bournemouth manager has a huge task of taking Newcastle back to the glory days of the early Premier League years. But they could have to fend off competition from Manchester United and Real Madrid for Demiral’s signature.
