When Arsenal came for Kenan Yildiz in the summer, Juventus said no. Three months on, the Gunners are back, and the resistance in Turin is beginning to carry a different sound.
According to TuttoMercatoWeb, Mikel Arteta’s side are preparing a €100m (£87m) offer for the 21-year-old Turkey forward when the January window opens.
Juventus’s public position, relayed through Tutto Juve, is that Yildiz is not for sale in winter. The club tied him to a contract running through 2030 earlier in the year to stiffen that stance.
What has changed is the balance sheet. Juventus CEO Giovanni Carnevali framed the Bianconeri’s season in blunt commercial terms on 1 October.
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“It has become more business than football, it’s one thing if you qualify for the Champions League, otherwise it’s a bloodbath,” he said.
TeamTalk reports that a nine-figure offer could trigger negotiations next summer if Juventus fail to finish inside Serie A’s top four.
Arteta’s left-wing problem
Arsenal’s chase is not new. The club made contact in June and were rebuffed, prompting Juventus’s four-year extension in February rather than any opening of talks.
Yildiz scored 11 goals and added 10 assists in Serie A last season from a left-sided forward role he can swap for the number ten or central striker position. Arteta and sporting director Andrea Berta see that versatility as the fit for a squad still short of elite left-wing attackers.
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Madrid and Bayern in the queue
Real Madrid are the obvious complication. Club president Florentino Pérez is a long-standing admirer, and Bayern Munich have also been linked to the Turkey international.
Luciano Spalletti, who took over at Juventus last October after Igor Tudor’s dismissal and remains in charge for the 2026-27 campaign, would lose his most saleable attacker at the moment the balance sheet most needs him on the pitch.
Yildiz himself is still watching from the sidelines. He underwent surgery on 31 August in Augsburg for a fractured fifth metatarsal in his left foot, with Juventus’s medical staff targeting a return in late November, roughly five weeks before the winter window opens.
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