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LINCOLN FINANCIAL FIELD, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, UNITED STATES - 2026/06/14: Franck Kessie of Cote d'Ivoire gestures during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group E football match between Cote d'Ivoire and Ecuador. Cote d'Ivoire won 1-0 over Ecuador. (Photo by Nicolò Campo/LightRocket via Getty Images) | LightRocket via Getty Images
The last time we heard anything related to Juventus’ potential interest in Ivory Coast midfielder Franck Kessie, it was during the final weekend of June as his contract with Al-Ahli was about to expire. He made it no secret — in a very unique and rather entertaining kind of way — that he feels like he could bring a lot to the table for a Juve team that is looking for upgrades everywhere on the roster.
A week later and with Kessie now officially a free agent, we have a new update.
It’s that Juventus have put forward a contract, according to a report from Tuttosport this weekend. The proposal, per Tuttosport’s reporting, is a three-year deal worth €5 million net per season. If that seems like a lot, that’s because it is — a salary of that size would make Kessie one of Juventus’ highest-paid players, but not exactly in the Dusan Vlahovic stratosphere that was on the books up until five days ago. That’s also nowhere near what Kessie reportedly earned during his playing days in Saudi Arabia the past few years, with Tuttosport saying that he earned an astronomical €14 million net per season at Al-Ahli.
There doesn’t appear to be a huge market for Kessie at this point as he comes out of his World Cup run with the Ivory Coast, but there seems like a strong likelihood right now that a return to Serie A could be in the cards, with a return to Atalanta also being thrown out as a possibility, according to SportMediaset.
The 29-year-old Kessie, as we know, has plenty of Serie A experience under his belt after stints with Atalanta and AC Milan. Seeing Kessie linked to Juventus is no new thing, with him being a rumored target of the Bianconeri front office in 2023 — albeit a much different one at that time — before leaving Barcelona for a big-money deal in Saudi Arabia.
That, obviously, was a wonderful move for his bank account. But it’s now one that is over and Kessie, who turns 30 years old a week before Christmas, is in the market for a new club.
Who knows what kind of ancillary fees Juventus might have to pay to make this “free” transfer happen, but there’s no denying that Kessie would be a boost for the current midfield situation. A reported salary offer of €5 million net hints that Juventus would see him as a regular starter ,and what the domino effect of that for other players on the roster — namely Khephren Thuram, who continues to reportedly draw interest from the Premier League — is something that will hopefully play itself out over these next few weeks as preseason training quickly approaches.
But Juventus going for Kessie is very much a thing now, and this reported contract offer is just another sign of it.
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