Juventus Signs Guglielmo Vicario as Goalkeeper Solution

Juventus have abandoned their chase for Emiliano Martinez and thrown their weight behind a different solution between the posts: Guglielmo Vicario.

After weeks of hard bargaining with Aston Villa, the talks hit a wall. Villa refused to move from their €15m (£12.8m) valuation, and Juventus walked away rather than be dragged into a drawn‑out standoff for a goalkeeper they were no longer prepared to pay full price for.

So they pivoted. Fast.

According to The Athletic, Juventus reached a total agreement with Tottenham on Monday to bring Vicario back to Serie A, just a year after he left Empoli for north London. For the 29-year-old, it is a return to familiar territory; for Juventus, it is a calculated gamble wrapped in a safety net.

Tuttosport report that the deal is a loan with a non-mandatory €10.5m (£9m) purchase option. No obligation, no long-term handcuffs. Juventus can watch Vicario for a full season, study his performances under pressure in Turin, and only then decide whether to make him their goalkeeper for the next cycle. After the stalemate with Villa, this is the cost-controlled compromise the club were looking for.

The move also underlines a shift at Tottenham under Roberto De Zerbi. The Italian coach has already earmarked Antonin Kinsky as his preferred number one, clearing the path for Vicario’s exit. The former Empoli man’s time in England started brightly but unravelled as last season wore on: a mixed campaign, some high-profile errors, and then hernia surgery in March that cost him his starting place. Once he lost that spot, the writing was on the wall.

Yet his first months at Spurs still matter to Juventus. Vicario showed he could play out from the back, take risks with the ball at his feet, and handle a modern, front-foot style. Those are precisely the qualities Luciano Spalletti has been seeking in his new goalkeeper, someone who can start attacks as confidently as he ends them.

The signing immediately rattles the hierarchy in Turin’s dressing room. Vicario is arriving to start, not to watch. That leaves Michele Di Gregorio’s position in doubt. According to Fabrizio Romano, Juventus have already offered the current keeper to Marseille and other European clubs on loan, a clear sign that the club are preparing for a changing of the guard.

For Vicario, the move closes an eventful three-year chapter in England. He joined Spurs from Empoli for around €20m, was quickly anointed as Hugo Lloris’s successor, and tasted both the scrutiny and the spotlight that come with guarding the goal for a Premier League club with Champions League ambitions. Now he swaps that for the weight of the Bianconeri shirt and the unforgiving standards of Turin.

For Juventus, this is not an isolated tweak. It is another piece in a wider rebuild. Jhon Lucumi has already arrived from Bologna to reinforce the defence, and the back line is being reshaped in Spalletti’s image: more aggressive, more technical, more comfortable playing high and brave.

Vicario steps into that project as the man expected to knit it all together from the back. If Serie A’s tactical rhythms help him rediscover the consistency he lost in London, Juventus might just have solved a major problem at a bargain price. If not, they simply send him back.

Either way, the goalkeeping future in Turin will not look the same again.