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Juventus Football Club S.p.A. announces that an agreement with Tottenham Hotspur FC has been reached for the temporary acquisition, until 30 June 2027, of the registration rights of player Pape Matar Sarr for a consideration of €2.5 million, with ancillary costs of €0.3 million.

The agreement further entails the right and, upon the achievement of certain conditions during the 2026/2027 sporting season, the obligation for Juventus to acquire the player’s registration rights. The agreed consideration for the potential definitive acquisition is €27.5 million, payable in three financial years.

Having begun his career in his native Senegal, Sarr then moved to Metz in France, and it was there that he made a name for himself at a young age and put himself on the radar of a number of European clubs. He signed with Tottenham in 2021, but remained in Ligue 1 for a season on loan.

A dynamic and versatile midfielder who boasts physicality but also brings skill and intensity in both phases of the game, Sarr gained a lot of experience in England and accumulated over 100 Premier League appearances with Spurs. He was also part of the club’s 2024/25 Europa League winning campaign.

At international level, Sarr has become a key player with Senegal, and played his part in their 2022 Africa Cup of Nations success.

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Juventus’ summer-long saga to find a new goalkeeper has reached its conclusion. At the very least, it’s bit of a disappointing one considering the options that were previously on the table and looked like the “favorite” to join the club this summer, but it’s a conclusion nonetheless.

After a Sunday full of drama surrounding a last-gasp effort to potentially sign Aston Villa’s Emi Martinez, Juventus have now reached their final pivot of the summer in the form of Tottenham Hotspur outcast Guglielmo Vicario. Juve will sign the former Empoli standout on a season-long loan deal in which there won’t be a loan fee to be paid, according to reports, but they will pick up the full amount of Vicario’s salary of around €2 million this coming season. Juventus will have an option to buy next summer, which will reportedly be worth €8 million with another €2 million in add-ons.

Vicario has already landed in Turin to undergo his medical exams at J Medical.

Vicario’s rough performances last season have made the decision to move on from him quite an easy one for Tottenham and manager Roberto De Zerbi. It didn’t take long into the offseason for Spurs to essentially say that Vicario’s backup last season, Antonín Kinský, was going to be their new starter and that the 29-year-old Italian was going to be heading out at some point during the upcoming transfer window.

For weeks, Vicario was the option that Juventus basically had stashed away in their back pocket as they chased other targets. When they were trying to sign Alisson? Yeah, Vicario was the backup option. When they were trying to sign Martinez and then Zion Suzuki and then Martinez again? Vicario was the backup option. It was only until all of those other options never happened that Vicario became the choice. That’s just what happens when you’re up against the wall and just a few short days before a new season begins.

Juve are banking on a much-needed change of scenery ends up being the things that has Vicario looking more like the goalkeeper from his early days at Tottenham rather than the one from the last 12 months. Whether that can actually happen is something we will only wait to see happen, but at least the drama and chase to sign somebody is over … right? There’s that, I guess.

Juventus’ second attempt to sign Emi Martinez came and went on Sunday faster than a whole lot of people could have even imagined. One minute the Bianconeri are making a surprise offer for the 33-year-old Argentine when a few days earlier it looked like they had no chance of signing him, and only a few hours later those negotiations were off and the goalkeeper search only continued to roll on.

So, you guessed it … another pivot.

As came out in the moments following reports that things fell apart on the Martinez front, Juventus have shifted focus in their search to sign a new goalkeeper to Tottenham Hotspur outcast Guglielmo Vicario, who has been on the market all summer and hasn’t had much of a market at all after a rough 2025-26 season. But, at this point, Juventus are in desperate need of signing somebody, and now it looks like it will be the player who has essentially been held off in the background as the club negotiated for the likes of Martinez, Alisson Becker and likely others.

So, less than a week before Juve’s 2026-27 campaign kicks off, they’re now talking about a season-long loan deal with an option to buy with Spurs for Vicario, according to IlBianconero.com’s Romeo Agresti, Sky Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio and others in Italy.

Di Marzio says that Vicario’s agent is already in Turin to try and get things closed. Juventus and Tottenham are reportedly set to “enter the final stages” of negotiations, according to Di Marzio.

According to Matteo Moretto, Juventus have submitted an offer for Vicario and the player has already given his approval to a return to Serie A after three years in London following his move from Empoli.

It has certainly been quite the day on the goalkeeper front. The Martinez offer to Aston Villa was a surprise considering, before Saturday’s developments between Zion Suzuki and Paris Saint-Germain and the fall-out from all of that, it looked like everything on that front was pretty much cooked. But, as the day went on, doubts started to grow that something could actually happen — and that was already on top of the skepticism considering just how much of an investment it would be to sign a player like Martinez.

So, deal off and now another pivot.

Vicario is very much not the quality of goalkeeper that Martinez is. He, like Juventus’ starter of the last two years Michele Di Gregorio, has dealt with quite a downfall over the last season. Vicario’s stock is very much not where it was when he was with Empoli — or anywhere close to that — and had Tottenham shelling out €20 million in the summer of 2023.

It is certainly looking like the disappointing conclusion to a position that needed an upgrade months ago. From Alisson to Martinez to Suzuki then back to Martinez and now Vicario. What a summer, I guess.

This time last month, Alisson Becker was Juventus’ clear No. 1 option to take over in goal for Michele Di Gregorio. That ship sailed, which meant Juve were forced to pivot to another option who is currently employed in the Premier League. Door No. 2 brought us to Emi Martinez, who for a couple of weeks looked to be a guy that wanted to come to Turin after speaking with Luciano Spalletti.

But now, as we head into the second half of June, we’re still waiting to see if Juventus and Aston Villa can actually strike some sort of deal for the eccentric Argentine goalkeeper. Left to wonder if there’s a chance that it may ever happen or if Door No. 3 will have to be opened up.

Speaking of Door No. 3 …

According to Sky Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio on Thursday, Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario has a “value that is rising compared to that of Dibu Martinez” as Juventus try to find some sort of solution in goal following a 2025-26 season in which Di Gregorio was prone to mistake … after mistake … after mistake. The thing is, though, Vicario being the third option is not inspiring at all — especially when you consider there’s already been one pivot and that the drop off between the second and third is much greater than the one from the first to the second.

Vicario won’t cost as much as Martinez would, but that is because he isn’t as good as the man who was in goal when Argentina won the World Cup in 2022.

But, this is just another example of how Juventus’ summer mercato is nowhere near simple. There are financial limitations, and new CEO and general manager Giovanni Carnevali is going to have to work with those limitations for the foreseeable future. He is trying to upgrade a squad on a slim budget, and that means the players that Spalletti wants might not actually be the players that Spalletti ends up getting.

Vicario is an OK option in goal, but not one that blows you away by any means. Does he have some clout because he is Gianluigi Donnarumma’s longtime backup for the Italian national team? Sure, but there’s a reason why Tottenham want to sell him this summer following three years in London.

And that’s because they know they can do better, and they have the financial muscle to do so even after barely escaping relegation this past season.

Vicario was previously linked to Serie A champions Inter Milan before they went elsewhere to bring in a new goalkeeper this summer. He has also been linked with a move to Napoli, which also looks to be in the market for a new goalkeeper now that Antonio Conte has come in and had his latest two-year stint at a club that ended in a disappointing final few months.

At this point, though, there feels like a pretty good chance that things don’t work out with Aston Villa despite Martinez wanting to come to Juventus and Carnevali will have to pivot just as Damien Comolli did before he was done as CEO. And if that’s the case, then it’s time to think about how much of an upgrade Juventus would actually be making in goal compared to what they already have.