Juventus are hopeful of beating Paris Saint-Germain to the signing of Matthijs de Ligt and have started negotiations with the player’s agent, Mino Raiola, in order to wrap up a deal.
PSG have been the favourites to sign the Ajax centre-back and offered him a five-year contract worth £340,000 a week 10 days ago. The 19-year-old, however, has not yet decided where he wants to play his club football next season and is still mulling over his future.
The situation at PSG is also complicated by the fact that they have just changed sporting director, with Leonardo replacing Antero Henrique, and that Neymar’s future is still undecided.
The Serie A club, with whom Raiola has a very good relationship, has offered the Netherlands international a weekly salary of £400,000 a week over five years. Talks are ongoing between Raiola, the Juve sporting director, Fabio Paratici, and the vice-chairman Pavel Nedved.
Raiola and the player are keen to have a release clause in the contract and that has formed part of the negotiations. Juventus have yet to make a formal offer to Ajax for the defender but are confident that around €70m or €75m will be enough to seal the deal, a similar figure to what PSG have offered the Dutch club.
PSG are very much still in the frame and so are Barcelona, who have already signed the Ajax midfielder Frenkie de Jong for next season.
