Francisco Conceiçao has had a seesawing first campaign at Juventus while on loan at Porto, and his future hangs in the balance. He seemed a lock to be bought out permanently early on, but then he fell out of favor, making his permanence unlikely.
According to TuttoSport, the Bianconeri have yet to make up their mind. The Portuguese winger was ignored by Igor Tudor in his first few matches on the bench. However, he’s coming off a couple of sound performances that help his case.
Juventus didn’t obtain an option to buy in the Conceiçao deal with Porto last summer. Though his contract envisages a €30M release clause that will kick in soon and set his price for the next window. The Old Lady has reservations about activating it. The attacker has also been inconsistent also injury-wise.
On the other hand, they are exploring whether there’s a chance to onboard him in alternative ways, like prolonging the loan, attaching some clauses or conditions to acquire him, or obtaining a discount on his valuation. They would surely like to have him for the entire Club World Cup. He has notched 5 goals and 5 assists in 36 appearances, starting in half of them.
He’s talented but is intermittent and is an ultra-specific player that doesn’t fit many schemes. Whoever their coach will be will highly influence the decision. He might top out as an effective spark-plug off the bench, and his price tag would be a tad rich for that. Plus, they haven’t really found a way for him and Nicolas Gonzalez, for whom they spent about €40M, to co-exist.
