Juventus sign de Ligt on 5-year contract

PARIS: Juventus have announced the signing of highly-rated Dutch centre-back Matthijs De Ligt from Ajax. The 19-year-old, who had previously been linked with Manchester United and Barcelona, has signed a five-year contract with the Serie A champions.

Juve have paid an initial fee of 75 million euros (£67.8million) for a player who helped Ajax reach last season’s Champions League semi-finals and win the Eredivisie title, while reaching the Nations League final with Holland.

At the weekend Leiderdorp-born De Ligt was left out of Ajax’s squad for their summer tour to Austria pending a transfer and he arrived in Turin on Wednesday to undergo a medical at Juve’s headquarters. Earlier in the summer the Holland international was expected to join Barcelona, who have signed his former Ajax team-mate Frenkie De Jong, while Premier League club United and Paris St Germain had reportedly been interested in securing his services.

De Ligt joins Cristian Romero, Luca Pellegrini, Aaron Ramsey, Adrien Rabiot and Merih Demiral as a new signing at Juve, with recently-appointed head coach Maurizio Sarri also bringing veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon back to Turin ahead of a bid for a ninth consecutive league title for the Bianconeri.