Juventus have undergone a lot of changes over the past several years, and they have been necessary shifts since the club has not won the Scudetto since the 2019/20 season when they had both Cristiano Ronaldo and Paulo Dybala healthy.
Dybala and Cristiano are no longer at the club, which has new faces in the attack like Dusan Vlahovic and young phenom Kenan Yildiz. With Thiago Motta replacing Max Allegri, Juventus are back to believing in a project for the future, albeit with a more proven (management-wise, at least) former Serie A midfielder as their coach than the legendary Andrea Pirlo.
Inter Milan still look like the favorites to win Serie A, but in 2024/25, Juve have more than a fighting chance at taking home the title again after falling behind by more than 20 points in the “title race” last season.
As Juventus get back on track with a new philosophy and new squad, there is one star player who has to regret forcing a move out of Turin and no longer being part of a project he once seemed to believe in with all his heart.
That player is center back Matthijs de Ligt, who went from Europe’s most promising center back to a lost figure. De Ligt is currently struggling to make an impression with Manchester United, having been forced out of Bayern Munich after a disappointing 2023/24 season.
Bayern are better off without de Ligt, whom they spent 67 million euros on. Juventus actually paid around 85 million euros to sign de Ligt in 2019 from Ajax, but given de Ligt went to Man United for just 45 million this past summer, in hindsight, they’ll be more than happy with the sale.
De Ligt was an athletic monster for Juve in the 2019/20 season and one of the best defenders in Serie A, even scoring wonderful goals for the Bianconeri. He looked like a future Juve captain and the heir to Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci at the heart of the defense.
But de Ligt’s development stagnated and with Juve in a difficult period, de Ligt and his camp started leaking rumors about a transfer. In 2022, Juve acquiesced and shipped him to Bayern, where the Dutchman thought the pastures were greener. However, at Bayern, de Ligt was exposed and unable to prove he was better than Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae, even when those two center backs were at their very worst.
As Juventus pursue Serie A glory and compete in the Champions League while Bayern show signs of reaching their best level under Vincent Kompany, de Ligt is playing for a dysfunctional Manchester United side at the level of the Europa League.
Unfortunately, that seems to be his level as a player, as Kompany, a former Premier League great at center back himself, didn’t want anything to do with him in his squad. De Ligt is a cautionary tale of how forcing a transfer at the wrong time and giving up on a team instead of looking introspectively can lead to a cascade of events that alters a career for the worse.
Dutch defender Ruud Kroll, who also played for Ajax and spent a few years in Serie A with Napoli, summed up de Ligt’s situation best, via JuveFC.com:
“De Ligt really thought he would improve by leaving Juventus but in reality he’s gone worse since leaving Juve. “He was fantastic under Allegri, perfect in marking, his positioning on the pitch, He was one of the strongest defenders in Italy.”
It’s a harsh but fair assessment. De Ligt had the opportunity to develop at arguably the best club in the world at producing center backs, but, instead, he’s fallen behind as Gleison Bremer and even Federico Gatti have taken the mantle to surpass him in performance and importance to the Bianconeri.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.