All summer we’ve heard that Douglas Luiz is one of the most likely candidates to leave Juventus, thus ending a year worth of struggles and failures to meet expectations that accompanied him after his €50 million move from Aston Villa. As the summer has gone on, it’s become evident that Luiz’s priority and desire has been to return to the Premier League where the best football of his career has taken place.
As we hit the middle of August and stand just a week out from the 2025-26 Serie A season getting underway, it looks as though Luiz has never been closer to getting that move out of Juventus and back to England.
Fabrizio Romano reported on Friday afternoon that Douglas Luiz and Nottingham Forest agreed to personal terms on a contract and are now pushing to get the negotiating with Juventus done to close the deal and bring the Brazilian midfielder back to the Premier League. Later in the day, SportItalia’s Alfredo Pedulla reported that Juventus and Forest conducted another round of talks, describing the final outcome as “negotiations are progressing” and that Luiz himself is happy with the deal that would see him return to England after all of about 14 months in Italy.
Considering that Premier League clubs have combined to spend close to £2 billion this summer, it’s nice to see Juventus at least see a small part of that for a player who has been on the transfer market the entire summer. That hasn’t changed lately even though Juventus manager Igor Tudor has been talking up the possibility of Luiz staying in Turin this coming season and where he could fit into the Croatian tactician’s plans in a more advanced role.
But, as things stand now, Luiz’s goal and assist in the friendly against the Juventus Next Gen squad will be the only goal contributions that he will have recorded in a Juventus jersey.
No, seriously. That’s it. Nothing in Serie A. Nothing in the Champions League or Coppa Italia. He barely played in the Club World Cup. But when it comes to the potential final time playing as a Juve player at the Allianz Stadium, that’s when he gets a couple of goal contributions.
So now it’s about Juventus and Nottingham Forest closing the deal and ensuring that Luiz gets his move back to the Premier League and the Bianconeri get the ability to do some other business. It’s been that kind of summer, so better late than never and having to wait until January for some additions … right?