Report: Juventus, Roma agree to Leonardo Spinazzola-Luca Pellegrini (and cash) swap

There are two things that seem to be apparently clear this summer.

For one, with Juventus looking more and more likely to sign Matthijs de Ligt, the Italian champions’ defense is going to be getting a lot younger and a core set up for the post-Giorgio Chiellini playing career time of life. Secondly, Roma is in total flux, with so much uncertainty surrounding the club after a handful of years of the roster being a revolving door of players coming and going.

It looks as though both things are now combining into one deal.

Sky Sport Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio is reporting that Juventus and Roma are doing their first pieces of business together since the Miralem Pjanic deal. It’s not going to involve the same amount of cash as Juve sent Roma’s way when they signed their current No. 5, but it will include some money and, more importantly, the swapping of a pair of fullbacks. Going to Roma will be Leonardo Spinazzola. Coming to Turin will be Luca Pellegrini, who is over five years Spinazzola’s junior, and €10 million in cash.

Pellegrini, according to Di Marzio, will undergo his medical exams with Juventus on Saturday.

According to Di Mazio, one of the the last steps in the process was getting Spinazzola to agree to terms with Roma on a contract — and that has now been accomplished. Spinazzola will earn €3 million net a season — an obvious raise over his current contract at Juventus — over the span of a five-year contract. The only thing that’s left, Di Marzio says, is Juventus to get an official agreement on a contract with Pellegrini.

Both Pellegrini and Spinazzola have something in common: They’ve both suffered serious knee injuries over the course of their still-young careers. Pellegrini, who won’t turn 21 years old until next March, is viewed as the player with much more potential to fulfill since Spinazzola is 26 years old and about to enter the prime of his career. What that prime may include is still relatively unknown seeing as he’s only played in a handful of games over the course of the last 12-16 months.

But what Juventus are doing with this deal, on top of getting some money from Roma, is to obviously get a defense that has a whole lot of veterans on it — Daniele Rugani is the youngest defender on the roster and he’s turning 25 next month — a little younger. Pellegrini is scheduled to arrive before de Ligt, but that’s a pretty good base to start at if you want to inject some youth into your side.