De Ligt: Juventus and Ajax finally agree transfer fee
After Juventus and De Ligt had agreed to personal terms, the Italian club has finally reached an agreement with Ajax after days of deadlock, according to reports in Holland.
Juventus and Ajax have reached an agreement for Matthijs de Ligt, with the Italian club set to pay 70 million euros plus variables for the young Dutch defender, according to reports in Holland.
Juventus have been forced to increase their initial offer of 50 million euros to meet the demands of the Dutch club, who orignally valued the 19-year-old at 75 million euros, so reports Dutch daily De Telegraaf.
That first offer of 50 million caused the negotiations to enter deadlock, but the Serie A giants finally agreed to to pay the amount demanded by Ajax, according to De Telegraaf, without giving details on the cost of the variables involved.
De Ligt will sign five-year deal at Juventus
With the clubs still locked in negotiations, De Ligt, who had agreed personal terms with Juventus, joined his Ajax team mates to begin pre-season training on Monday.
But with an agreement now reportedly in place, it is understood that he will not be forced to travel to Austria on Saturday, where the Dutch champions are set to play a pre-season friendly against Turkish club Istanbul Basaksehir on Sunday.
De Ligt is set to sign a five-year contract with Juventus and will receive a salary of around 14 million euros gross per year, reports Holland's Algemeen Dagblad newspaper, which also confirmed the agreement between the two clubs.
De Ligt becomes Serie A’s most expensive defender
With the 70 million euros fee agreed by the two clubs, the 19-year-old centre back will become the most expensive defender in the history of Serie A (beating the 42-million-euro record held by Leonardo Bonucci) and third most expensive in the world, behind Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk (90 million euros) and Lucas Hernandez, who signed for Bayern Munich from Atlético Madrid for 80 million euros.