Over the past year and a half or so, we’ve seen a handful of Juventus players be rewarded with new contracts that, for the most part, have tied them to the club for the long-term future. But when it comes to Kenan Yildiz, we’ve seen the budding young Turkish star get not one, but two new contracts within the span of 12 months.
The first came in August 2023. The second came in August 2024 — and with a new kit number to boot.
It seems that a third contract extension in as many summers will be discussed with Yildiz once Juventus return from their Club World Cup participation in the United States.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport earlier this week and since also reported by Tuttosport on Sunday, Juventus intend to even further lock in the 20-year-old Yildiz as a leading player at the club heading into the 2025-26 season. With Juve qualifying for the Champions League, the need to cash in on Yildiz’s ever-growing value on the transfer market doesn’t seem likely, but a contract extension, in theory, would stave off the big-money clubs — namely from the Premier League — and not even give the young Turkiye attacker even a temptation to ply his trade somewhere other than Turin.
Yildiz currently earns around €1.5 million net with the deal he signed prior to the start of the 2024-25 season, but La Gazzetta says a new deal could see that figure nearly triple and go to €4 million plus bonuses, A salary like that would put Yildiz amongst Juventus’ highest earners — especially if Dusan Vlahovic, like everybody expects, and his Serie A-high €12 million net salary comes off the books this summer.
Yes, this is good. This is very, very good. Why? Because Kenan Yildiz, at barely 20 years old, is already one of Juventus’ best players — and is only going to continue to confirm that no matter who the club ends up signing this summer.
The objective with the latest rumors of a contract extension are obviously two-fold. You, ost importantly, want to keep Yildiz happy and further confirm that he is central to the long-term success of the club even though we’re still not totally sure who the manager for the 2025-26 season will be as we sit here in the first full weekend of June. But, basically just as important, is the fact that the long-term contract and major salary boost is also a major thing for Juventus to fend off the richest of the rich Premier League clubs trying to pry Yildiz away from Turin.
That’s the hope, of course. Just how effective it can be will only be what actually plays out.
But Juventus’ strategy appears to be pretty clear at this point no matter who is running the show at Continassa — keep Yildiz happy and only continue to give him contract extensions to reinforce that. If it becomes a third summer with Yildiz signing a new deal, we might as well make it an annual tradition.