On Thursday Juventus made the surprising announcement that they'd sold their share in Italy's wonderkid striker Domenico Berardi to Sassuolo. The end of Italy's complicated system of co-ownership meant that one of the two clubs had to take on the player's full registration rights, and the assumption was that the bianconeri would blow the Emilian minnows out of the water to sign the 20-year-old.
Why Juventus sold Domenico Berardi to Sassuolo
This transfer isn’t as weird as you might think.
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Instead, Sassuolo will keep the player who has worn their shirt for the last five years, with just €10 million enough to secure his services. This is a player who has scored 31 goals in his two debut seasons in Serie A; a player who shot to prominence by netting a first half hat trick in a 4-3 win over AC Milan last January; a player both younger and better than his teammate Simone Zaza, who looks likely to move to Juve this summer.
The question is, what on earth are Juventus thinking?
The rather underwhelming truth is that there’s a perfect logic to their transfer business. The bianconeri have been almost faultless in just about everything they’ve done over the last few years, and they’ve not let Berardi slip away either. Transfer don Gianluca Di Marzio has revealed that Juve sold Berardi with a buyback clause of €18 million that they’ll activate next summer.
It’s a move that effectively continues the co-ownership agreement in all but name.
In theory Sassuolo could well renege on the agreement and sell him onto another buyer before next summer, but that’s highly unlikely -- they’ve had a strong relationship with Juve over the last few years, and other than their presumed unwillingness to compromise such a partnership, there’s probably no one else yet willing to gamble that much money on Berardi.
It is an agreement that keeps everyone happy -- Sassuolo get to keep their star striker for another season, while Juventus get €10 million added to this summer’s budget, before seeing their young gem continue to enjoy the sort of regular top-flight football they’d currently be unable to offer him.
Unfortunately for everyone else in Serie A, losing Berardi to Sassuolo isn’t a glaring oversight from Juve. It’s the latest intelligent move in their gradual process of transitioning from their current veteran squad to one anchored by a younger generation of talent.
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