The Frenchman is at the center of the Spalletti project and sees the renewal, but without fourth place he can leave to save the Bianconeri’s accounts: United are in pole position
Fold or double? Khephren Thuram will answer the quiz in eight days, at the end of the championship. The future of the son of art is on the thin edge of qualifying for the next Champions League. For the French midfielder, one of the pillars of the team built by Luciano Spalletti, fourth place is worth even more. Hitting the target will speed up the contract renewal. Missing it can lead to a divorce as painful as possible: the rich Premier has already started calling. There’s a big difference between hearing the Champions League jingle or not hearing it. Juventus is gambling at least 60-70 million and Thuram also has his future in Turin. An extra motivation for the 25-year-old former Nice player, who is taking advantage of the break spent at Continassa to brush up after his recent ailments in view of the Easter Monday match. From Genoa (6 April) to the derby with Torino at the end of May: Khephren runs for the Lady and for himself.
double?
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Thuram’s hope is to take revenge in the Champions League with the Juventus shirt after the tears following the missed goal against Galatasaray. Everything (or almost everything) will pass from the last fifty days of the season. Juventus is chasing Cesc Fabregas’ Como, fourth and ahead by three points, but they also have to pay attention to Roma, who are once again close to the plate. Mission not obvious, but not impossible either. Even more so if Spalletti can count on the best version of Thuram, the dynamic and devastating one with his bursts from area to area, and not on the faded and slowed down copy who was the protagonist in the draw against Sassuolo. Khephren wants to turn the exclusion of coach Didier Deschamps from France into a springboard to finish the championship on top and get a ticket to the American World Cup. Juventus having qualified for the Champions League can give him the decisive push. Fourth place would make the Juventus club richer and also the transalpine midfielder himself. Apart from the goalkeepers (Perin and Di Gregorio) and after the star renewal of Kenan Yildiz (6 million), Thuram has the lowest salary among Spalletti’s starters. The number 19, who arrived in the summer of 2024 from Nice for 20 million, earns just over 2 million (2.3). Khephren still has three years left on his contract, but talks about extending and tweaking it have already begun. Juventus’ idea is to start again from Lilian’s little son, practically untouchable for Spalletti: 38 appearances, 3 goals and 4 assists.
leaves?
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Everything, however, has a price. If the Lady were not to collect the rich UEFA Champions League prizes, CEO Damien Comolli would find himself practically forced to sacrifice a big player. Thuram is the main suspect for several reasons: he is young (25 years old) and appreciated by top European clubs, he has an easily “attackable” salary and a budget cost that would guarantee a nice capital gain for Juventus. Khephren proved to be one of the best coups of recent years and of former director Cristiano Giuntoli: now the 20 million invested in 2024 are worth at least double. Even more so in the event of an English auction: there have already been some surveys of Manchester United, also watch out for Liverpool. In the Premier League there is also growing interest in Pierre Kalulu, protagonist of a record year (41 appearances). At Continassa they are still confident in the Champions League and in the possibility of adding a big player in the middle of the field (the ball is the free agent Bernardo Silva of City, there is competition from Barcelona) without having to give up Thuram. In the worst case scenario, Comolli will have to invent something: if Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg of Marseille could come back into fashion, Franck Kessie (Al-Ahli) aims to leave Arabia and continues to propose himself to all the big Italian teams.
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