Ranking Juventus' Top 10 Summer Signings of the Past 10 Years
Any team has its ups and downs in the transfer market. Juventus is no different. For every major victory in the mercato, another player has proved to be a waste of time and money.
In Juventus' rise from the ashes of Calciopoli in 2006, director Giuseppe Marotta has made some impressive coups in the summer transfer window. The building blocks of the juggernaut that was built by Antonio Conte from 2011 to the present day were almost all acquired from outside rather than from the youth system—only Claudio Marchisio was a true academy product.
Who are the very best of the buys Juve have made in the last decade? That's what we're here to find out.
It should be noted that this list deals exclusively with summer transfers, so anyone who starts grinding the axe about the fact Andrea Barzagli—one of the best pieces of transfer business by any team ever—does not appear here is asked to remember he was a January signing in 2011. Players make the list based on the impact they had or are having on the Bianconeri.
Without further ado, here are Juventus' top 10 summer signings of the last decade.
10. Fernando Llorente
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Acquired in: 2013
Acquired from: Athletic Bilbao, free transfer.
Serie A appearances (goals): 66 (23)
European appearances (goals): 19 (3)
Given Fernando Llorente's relatively nondescript tenure at Juventus, it can seem like a surprise to find him on a list like this. That just shows how badly the regime that preceded Marotta and team president Andrea Agnelli performed in the transfer market. In fact, no player on this list predates Marotta, and only one predates Conte.
That said, Llorente did serve the Bianconeri well. Twenty-three league goals in 66 games, including 16 in in 2013-14, is a very good return. During that first season, he and Carlos Tevez set a team record for goals by a strike pairing, breaking the one set by team legends Alessandro Del Piero and David Trezeguet.
Llorente was the best pure No. 9 the team had since Trezeguet left in 2010, but his slow-footedness hurt him when Conte departed last year. In Conte's system, Tevez stayed much closer to Llorente, working off the Spaniard more often and freeing space for him.
When Massimiliano Allegri replaced Conte, he gave Tevez far more freedom to move within the attacking third. That severely hampered Llorente, who got less space to operate and less direct service from Tevez. He started losing playing time to the more mobile Alvaro Morata.
As a free transfer, though, acquiring Llorente was an excellent move. Given the effect he had on a forward line that underperformed severely during the first two years of Conte's tenure and the nonexistent cost, picking up the Spaniard was a shrewd move indeed.
9. Paulo Dybala
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Acquired in: 2015
Acquired from: Palermo, €32 million, potentially rising to €40 million with bonuses.
Serie A appearances (goals): 10 (4)
European appearances: 4
It's rare to see an Italian team shell out big money for a young player. Serie A is one of the most tactically sophisticated leagues in the world, and it sometimes seems teams are unwilling to trust younger players to understand the tactics, settling for older players who often aren't as good.
It says a lot, then, that Juventus would shell out so much money for a 21-year-old player in Paulo Dybala.
Dybala arrived in Italy in 2012, when Palermo purchased him as a teenager from Argentinian side Instituto. He struggled to integrate, but he was given more of an opportunity when the Rosaneri were relegated to Serie B in 2013.
Last year, Palermo's first back in the top flight, the youngster was a revelation. He scored 13 goals and notched 10 assists as the Sicilian side quickly re-established themselves in Serie A.
That was enough to attract Juve's interest, and they secured a deal with Palermo president Maurizio Zamparini very early in the offseason.
Dybala is on this list as much for what he represents for the future as the present. It would be foolish to say purchasing anyone so young is can't-miss opportunity—or to say that about anyone, for that matter—but Dybala's talent is obvious. He can develop into a player exactly like Carlos Tevez—and help lead Juve's line for a long time.
Picking up Dybala was an excellent move by the Juventus front office, which recognized both his talent and the need to inject youth into a team that was starting to push 30 in several areas. Time will tell whether he'll be on a future version of this list, but the signs so far say he will.
8. Alvaro Morata
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Acquired in: 2014
Acquired from: Real Madrid, €20 million.
Serie A appearances (goals): 38 (9)
European appearances (goals): 16 (7)
Real Madrid isn't a place where youth players get much of a crack at the lineup. High-priced stars such as Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez arrive every year, limiting the chances for younger players to get into the team and develop.
That's why Alvaro Morata began looking for a move two summers ago. He chose Juventus.
It's a testament to his talent that Real insisted on including a buyback clause in his contract. That clause could see him move back to Madrid at the end of the season for €30 million—and why he's a bit lower on this list than his contribution might otherwise justify.
Even though he's only spent one season at the team and is 23, that contribution has been massive. Without Morata, it is highly doubtful Juventus' 2014-15 season would have ended the way it did.
The young Spaniard scored five goals in the Champions League last season—all of them in the knockout stages. None were bigger than the ones he scored against his former club in the semifinals. His eighth-minute opener shocked Los Blancos. His equalizer in the second leg was the decisive moment in the entire tie.
The question now is how long Morata will remain at Juventus. La Gazzetta dello Sport reported (h/t Football Italia) in October that Real Madrid were looking to bring Morata back to the club. However, the player has expressed a deep love for Juve and a desire to remain.
"I am truly in love with Juve and and want to spend much of my career in the Bianconeri jersey," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport last year (h/t the Independent).
If Morata were to go back to Spain, he would likely be right back where he started—stuck behind Karim Benzema with little chance to start. If the time comes this summer and he proves unwilling, Madrid may just leave him alone.
If that happens, Morata will have a chance to move up this list. He is still young, and his ceiling is high. With a little consistency, he could be one of the best No. 9s in the world.
7. Patrice Evra
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Acquired in: 2014
Acquired from: Manchester United, €1.5 million.
Serie A appearances (goals): 29 (1)
European appearances: 13
No one could have anticipated just how good Patrice Evra would be when he got to Juventus.
After the 2013-14 season, Manchester United clearly regarded him as a spent force. They spent a staggering €37.5 million to acquire Luke Shaw from Southampton that summer and allowed Evra to look for work elsewhere. He went to Juve for a pittance on a two-year contract, clearly a transitional solution while Juve looked for a more permanent option on the left flank.
But Evra clearly had more to give. His performances in a Juve shirt since his arrival have been phenomenal—all the more so given how much he had to play after Kwadwo Asamoah missed almost all of 2014-15 through injury.
But Evra's biggest contribution has been tactical flexibility.
The biggest knock on Conte is that he was too wedded to the 3-5-2 formation he used to run rampant through Italy for three seasons. The flaw in that criticism was Conte didn't ever have the players to effectively change his tactics.
In particular, Juve lacked a capable left-back. Evra changed that.
With Allegri able to employ a four-man line without making compromises, Juve's shift to a 4-3-1-2 formation was considerably easier. Evra has continued to play at a high level this season and will be an important influence on new arrival Alex Sandro as he develops.
Evra has been an unanticipated but important transfer win.
6. Stephan Lichtsteiner
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Acquired in: 2011
Acquired from: Lazio, €10 million.
Serie A appearances (goals): 126 (11)
European appearances (goals): 28 (1)
Any Juventus fans that have not blocked out the Luigi Delneri-led 2010-11 season from their minds will remember that of all the myriad holes in the team's roster, right-back was one of the biggest.
That season, the right flank was manned mainly by three players: Frederik Sorensen, a converted center back, Zdenek Grygera and, for the most part, Marco Motta.
As any fan who remembers that dark time knows, Motta is a bad, bad man.
Stephan Lichtsteiner made that man go away.
Bought from Lazio as Conte was arriving, the Swiss defender instantly locked down the right side of the field. He runs tirelessly, supporting the attack and getting back to cover opposing players when they get wide. He can play as a traditional full-back and as a wing-back.
He may not be able to cross with anything in the way of precision, but his runs down the wing provide essential width, and his ability to cut inside and get on the end of long balls such as the one Paul Pogba provided him in Tuesday's Champions League game against Borussia Monchengladbach provide a constant threat.
Few signings have filled an obvious need as well as Lichtsteiner has for Juventus.
5. Paul Pogba
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Acquired in: 2012
Acquired from: Manchester United, free transfer.
Serie A appearances (goals): 100 (22)
European appearances (goals): 36 (2)
Paul Pogba will always be a black mark on the brilliant managerial career of Sir Alex Ferguson.
The then-teenaged Frenchman was unable to break into Manchester United's first team. Wanting guarantees on playing time, he refused to sign a new contract and went to Juve on a free.
He impressed in his first season, garnering a reputation for scoring long-range screamers that were dubbed "Pogbooms" by fans.
The next season, he slotted seamlessly into the starting lineup after Claudio Marchisio was injured during the Supercoppa Italiana and played so well he forced the veteran out of the team for almost the entire season.
Pogba can completely take a game over, but he can also drop out of them. That inconsistency is what drops him a spot or two on this list despite the sheer insanity of the economics of his signing.
He's a mainstay of Juve's midfield, and even if he does leave the team—the rumors have been flying now for what seems like forever, and his agent, Mino Raiola, touched on the subject again recently with GR Parlamento (h/t Football Italia)—his transfer fee would be historic. A sale would be comparable with the 2001 sale of Zinedine Zidane, which set a transfer record and allowed Juventus to buy multiple top-level players.
Whether he stays or goes, Pogba's impact on the team will be felt for a very long time.
4. Leonardo Bonucci
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Acquired in: 2010
Acquired from: Bari, €15.5 million.
Serie A appearances (goals): 174 (8)
European apperances (goals): 40 (2)
It's amazing to see how far Leonardo Bonucci has come.
There was a time when pundits thought Juventus had made the wrong choice choosing Bonucci over Andrea Ranocchia, who went to Inter the same year Bonucci arrived at Juve, 2010. He struggled in his first season with the Bianconeri and was largely regarded as one of the team's main problems as the Delneri era came to a mercifully quick end.
Now, that notion is laughable. Bonucci might be the most improved player in Europe over the last few years. He's been one of, if not the best ball-playing center back in the game for several years now, and his defensive abilities have improved every year to the point a case can be made that he's surpassed both Andrea Barzagli and Giorgio Chiellini.
So integral to the team is Bonucci that he captained Juve in late September when Marchisio was injured and Chiellini and Gianluigi Buffon were rested.
Bonucci is going to be a fixture of the Juventus starting XI for many years. His contract runs through 2020, when he'll be in his mid-30s. With him, the Bianconeri boast the very best center-back corps in the game, and he'll lead that defense as the team moves from one generation to the next.
3. Carlos Tevez
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Acquired in: 2013
Acquired from: Manchester City, €9 million.
Serie A appearances (goals): 66 (39)
European appearances (goals): 25 (8)
In Antonio Conte's first two years, Juventus had one glaring weakness: Their forwards simply weren't scoring. They were creating chances aplenty, but they weren't anywhere near clinical enough. Opportunities were wasted, especially in the Champions League.
Tevez changed that.
Behavioral problems allowed Juve to get him for a song at €9 million, and his scoring edge made an instant impact. He scored more than a goal every two games in league play, and when he finally broke the dam on his long-term Champions League scoring drought, he did it in style, scoring seven as Juve stormed to the 2014-15 Champions League final.
Feeling the tug home after that game, Tevez returned home to Argentina and Boca Juniors, where he started his career as a teenager. In addition to €6.5 million cash, Juve also acquired promising young forward Guido Vadala on a two-year loan with the option to make it permanent.
With Tevez, Juve evolved from a machine into a juggernaut. In his two seasons, the team set a European record for points in a season and then reached the Champions League final. He was absolutely magnificent, and until the dust settles after this summer's major player turnover, Juve won't be truly the same without him.
2. Andrea Pirlo
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Acquired in: 2011
Acquired from: AC Milan, free transfer.
Serie A appearances (goals): 119 (16)
European appearances (goals): 33 (3)
This is the signing that started everything.
In 2011, aged 32, Andrea Pirlo had just won his second Serie A title with AC Milan, but the team he played for for 10 years and won three Champions Leagues with didn't think he had anything left. They let him walk away from his contract for free, and he signed with Juventus.
The rest is history.
Pirlo responded by having the season of his life. He absolutely dominated Serie A, leading Juve to an undefeated season. Then he capped it off by spurring Italy to the final of Euro 2012.
With Pirlo pulling the strings, few teams could hope to stop Juve. He brought experience, discipline and leadership—along with pinpoint passes and jaw-dropping free-kick deliveries that dazzled all who watched.
Over the last two years, there were signs of sputtering. Injuries kept Pirlo on the shelf for some stretches and teams were finally able to get to him and disrupt his influence on the game. At the end of last season, he left to begin his final chapter in MLS, but his impact on Juventus will be felt forever.
Pirlo, along with Conte, was the man who pulled Juve out of the dirt and put them back on top of Italian football—and no one will ever forget it.
1. Arturo Vidal
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Acquired in: 2011
Acquired from: Bayer Leverkusen, €12.5 million.
Serie A appearances (goals): 124 (35)
European appearances (goals): 33 (11)
Pirlo may have keyed Juve's post-Calciopoli rise, but no one embodied it like Arturo Vidal.
The midfielder was signed from under the noses of Bayern Munich for €12.5 million, and his impact was immediate. He ran everywhere, stopped midfielders with the ball before they got started and drove to the opponent's penalty area with every chance he got.
A true box-to-box midfielder, Vidal is a rare breed. He's probably the most complete player in the world—no other blends the three disciplines of passing, defense and finishing better than the Chilean.
Whenever there was a big game or a big moment, Vidal stepped up. When Juve faced a must-win home Champions League game against Copenhagen in 2013, he did netted a hat trick in a 3-1 win. In a top-of-the-table clash against Roma that season, he assisted on the opening goal and generally dominated the midfield as Juve put their would-be challengers in their place with a 3-0 victory.
When Juve needed someone to step up to the penalty spot in their Champions League quarterfinal against Monaco last season, Vidal—who had uncharacteristically struggled with penalties that term—dispatched it perfectly, providing the difference in a razor-thin 1-0 aggregate win.
While he could get out of control on the field at times, he truly was the most indispensable player on Juve's roster during their four year-long reign as champions during his time at the club. Now Bayern have their claws in him at last, his absence is perhaps the most notable of the three major players who left the team in the summer. The spirit and grit Antonio Conte ingrained in the team—embodied so perfectly by Vidal—has largely been absent this season.
The numbers Vidal gave Juve usually come from players with much higher transfer fees. Given the return on Vidal's investment—and the huge profit for which he was sold this year—Vidal is definitely the best piece of summer business Juve have done over the last decade.
All transfer information taken from Transfermarkt.com.
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