Report: Juventus are ‘leading the chase’ to sign Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic

There are mere days left in the 2022-23 season for Juventus. That means a number of things, but maybe most interesting of them all has been the increase in transfer talk surrounding the club despite the fact that the Bianconeri still haven’t hired a new sporting director.

That very important job to fill has not stopped the transfer mill from spinning.

According to ESPNFC’s Mark Ogden on Tuesday, Juventus has emerged as the leader in the clubhouse to sign Chelsea forward Christian Pulisic this summer. Chelsea are very much open to listening to offers for the 24-year-old Pulisic, who has been with the Premier League side since 2019. Pulisic has one year remaining on his contract and is expected to cost in the neighborhood of £20 million, according to Ogden.

Italian transfer journalist Nicolo Schira has previously reported that Pulisic is one of the many Chelsea players who is not in the plans of new manager Mauricio Pochettino, who officially joined the club earlier this week.

Ogden has further confirmed that Pulisic — who first signed with Chelsea in 2019 after a £58 million move from Borussia Dortmund — is likely to leave this summer as their 2022-23 spending spree has left the Blues with a bloated squad that is desperately in need of player sales.

According to this report and previous ones surrounding his future, Pulisic has drawn interest from Napoli, AC Milan, Manchester United, Newcastle United and Galatasaray.

One of the major sticking points of a potential deal, as you might expect, would be Pulisic lowering his current salary of £13 million gross a season to make a potential move to Juventus (or probably anywhere else that can’t afford Premier League-level wages). With his current salary, Pulisic would be one of Juventus’ highest earners.

Odgen notes that Juventus are reluctant to come close to matching Pulisic’s current wages.

On the field, Pulisic has had a tough time during his Chelsea tenure. He’s dealt with more than a decent amount of injuries, and when healthy playing time has been mixed at best. This season, Pulisic appeared in 24 games (eight starts) in the Premier League, logging just 821 minutes and scoring one goal and one assist.