Even during Juventus’ month-long swoon in February, the message from the club’s hierarchy remained steadfast: We want to keep Luciano Spalletti around, and there is not going to be an issue making that happen. It didn’t matter if it was coming out of Giorgio Chiellini’s mouth as he spoke to one of Italy’s major broadcasters or if it was Damien Comolli saying those same thoughts, there has never been a doubt as to what Spalletti’s future holds beyond the 2025-26 season.
And it looks like we’re soon going to get the confirmation of what they’ve been telling us for weeks now.
According to IlBianconero’s Romeo Agresti and others in the Italian media on Tuesday, Juventus are close to finalizing a contract extension with the 67-year-old Spalletti. We’ve heard various ways as to how said contract extension will be structured, and Agresti has reported that it will be a one-year extension through 2027 with the option for another season. This is the path that is gaining the most traction at this moment, with Spalletti having previously played down the talk of a potential contract extension and instead trying to focus on the current task of trying to get Juventus into the top four and a qualifying for the Champions League next season.
Either way, it looks as though we pretty much know who Juventus’ manager will be next season no matter what European competition they will actually be playing in — and it’s the man trying to get them back into the Champions League as winter gets set to turn to spring in Italy.
Agresti said that an announcement of Spalletti’s extension is “expected soon” with an agreement between the two parties in the closing stages.
Spalletti replaced Igor Tudor at the end of October after the Croatian was fired less than three months into the new season. It came after Tudor — now trying to avoid the sack and relegation at Tottenham Hotspur — was struggling mightily both domestically and in the Champions League, with Spalletti taking his first job after his roller coaster-like spell as the head coach of the Italian national team.
Since then, there’s been some good things, but there’s also been plenty of negatives. Juventus are out of the Champions League following their disastrous first leg in Turkey against Galatasaray. Just a few weeks earlier, they were eliminated from the Coppa Italia by Atalanta in the quarterfinals — which meant their best chance at hardware this season was suddenly gone. Now, all there’s left to do is to try and get into fourth place, and that is proving to be a difficult task based on the early-season hole Tudor contributed to and a brutal month of February where Juve recorded just one win in all competitions.
But even with the struggles Juventus’ front office has maintained Spalletti has done plenty to deserve a contract extension. They don’t want to go through another managerial change over the summer, and they have made sure to get reassurances from the club’s most important players that Spalletti is the man they want taking this squad forward, according to Tuttosport on Tuesday.
It’s only a matter of time until Spalletti signs onto a new contract and extends his deal by another season. At first it was dependent on Champions League qualification, but now it’s Juventus showing their faith in the Tuscan tactician who has done some pretty solid work so far.