Juventus have reportedly made a decision on Joao Mario, who hasn’t attracted any serious suitors during the January transfer window.
While none of the club’s four summer signings have hit the ground running, Jonathan David has become an automatic starter recently, while Lois Openda and Edon Zhegrova often appear off the bench.
On the contrary, Mario has already been reduced to a forgotten figure, as he couldn’t convince Igor Tudor in the first two months of the campaign, and his playing time was further reduced with Luciano Spalletti in charge.
At the start of the January transfer session, it was reported that Juventus would be happy to cut their ties with the Portuguese right-back.
The 26-year-old currently weighs circa €10 million on the club’s balance sheet, so any club willing to meet this figure would have received the Old Lady’s full approval.
Joao Mario (Photo by Francesco Scaccianoce/Getty Images)
But as TuttoJuve explains, the Serie A giants have almost given up finding Mario a new club with only a few days separating us from the end of the month.
Therefore, Juventus have resigned to their fate, accepting that the former Porto player will linger at Continassa at least until June.
The source adds that the Bianconeri remain adamant about offloading Mario as soon as possible, and they believe that the summer should provide new opportunities on this front, especially when the player’s nominal value would decrease, making him more affordable.
In the meantime, Mario will remain at Spalletti’s disposal, so perhaps he might be able to climb up the pecking order if given the opportunity.
At the moment, Pierre Kalulu is the manager’s first choice at right-back when playing with four at the back, while Weston McKennie often starts as a right wing-back when the team adopts a 3-4-2-1 formation, as was the case in Sunday’s 3-0 win over Napoli, when Mario was once again an unused substitute.
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