Revealed: How Juventus stole Rodrigo Bentancur from under AC Milan and Man Utd noses

Lorenzo Bettoni
21 set 2017

Juventus star Rodrigo Bentancur made his first Serie A start against Fiorentina yesterday night and his performance has been praised by every Italian media today. As we also pointed out in our player ratings, the former Boca Juniors starlet proved to have plenty of personality and to have no fear of the biggest European stages.

Bentancur had also started Juventus’ opening Champions League clash against Barcelona last week but after a good first half he failed to live up to expectations in the second part of the game just like most of his teammates.

Juventus signed Bentancur for € 10 million last summer making the most of a first-clause option they had gained when they sold Carlos Tevez to Boca back in 2015.

AC Milan were interested in signing the 20-year-old in summer 2016 and came actually very close to signing the talented midfielder.

Papers had been signed as Boca accepted the offer of the rossoneri and the player was also ready to move to the San Siro for a fee close to € 15 million.

Trouble is, Juventus activated their clause as soon as they knew AC Milan wanted to sign Bentancur. Calciomercato.com exclusively reported in summer 2016 that AC Milan would have failed to sign Bentancur due to Juventus’ clause.

The player was also a transfer target of Manchester United. Boca President Angelici, in fact, revealed the interest of the Red Devils less than one year ago.

"He [Bentancur] must have something because there were a lot of clubs interested. Real Madrid made a proposal, Manchester United also came and Milan made a €14m formal offer to sign him”, Angelici said.

Juventus, however, managed to put their hands on the Uruguay starlet before any other European club. Will he be the next big thing in Serie A?

@lorebetto