Matthijs de Ligt of Holland commits to Juventus for five years

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ROME - The "Old Lady" gives a boost to her defense for 85,5 M EUR (bonuses and commissions included): Matthijs de Ligt, 19 years old, captain of Ajax Amsterdam coveted notably by the PSG, was Thursday for five years at Juventus, announced the Turin club.

With this record financial package to this post, Juve offers one of the artisans of the epic in the Champions League of Ajax, also targeted by FC Barcelona.

"Hi Bianconeri, it's Matthijs, I'm really happy to be here," the central defender, who turns 20 on August 12th, said he was going down Tuesday night from a private jet on the airport tarmac. Turin.

His annual salary will exceed 7.5 million euros and could reach 12 million with bonuses, according to Italian media. In addition, the contract provides for a sale clause of 150 million euros from the summer of 2021.

He becomes the third most expensive player in the history of the "Old Lady", after Cristiano Ronaldo (105 million) and Gonzalo Higuain (90 million).

"Italy is always the ideal"

"Technical mastery, physical overpower, vision of the game, management and interpretation of the defensive dynamic, propensity to score, especially the head: Matthijs is a perfect synthesis of the modern defender," boasted the Piedmont club in a statement.

By Wednesday morning, a few hundred fans of the eight-time Italian champions club had waited for this blond, youthful facies and impressive build (1.89 m, 89 kg), in front of the medical center where he spent the traditional health checks.

A precocious phenomenon, Ligt made his professional debut in September 2016 at the age of 16 and wore the national team jersey "Oranje" at only 17 in March 2017.

"It was the sporting project that was decisive," his agent Mino Raiola told the press on Wednesday, who is also negotiating this summer the transfer of Paul Pogba (Manchester United), targeted by Real Madrid. "For a defender, Italy is always the ideal. "

Under the orders of new coach Maurizio Sarri, the young prodigy arrives in a club where age catches up with "defense professors" Giorgio Chiellini (34 years old) and Leonardo Bonucci (32 years old), as Jose Mourinho once greeted them.

"Take care of him"

The first named is worried to be done. For the Dutch coach Ronald Koeman, it's very simple: "De Ligt will become in the short term one of the best defenders of the world". Juve has understood it well. "Take care of him," sobered Ajax Thursday morning.

To say that the kid was first attracted to field hockey ... He even had to push him to join the Ajax youth school when he was spotted by a recruiter at age nine-year-old, according to the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. Initially quiet, shy, a little big, the metamorphosis was dazzling.

His new club puts forward three goals from the lead during the Ajax epic in C1 last season, and maliciously notes that only one player has done better in this exercise: his new teammate Cristiano Ronaldo has marked four.

Several media had also revealed that CR7 had asked Ligt to come to Juve, not resentful to have been eliminated in C1 by the Ajax of a certain Ligt.