Yesterday evening, Douglas Costa flew to Torino, Italy, in anticipation of his medical examination and presentation by his new club, Juventus Turin. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had indicated on Monday that talks with Juventus were drawing to a close.
The beans - or should I say fagioli - were spilled by an old friend, Medhi Benatia, who tweeted a welcome message to his fratel(l)o before Juventus itself had made any announcement:
Welcome to Torino fratelo @douglascosta ⚪️⚫️ #forzajuve #OnEstLarge pic.twitter.com/Y5pmW2jzBN
— MBenatia5 (@MedhiBenatia) July 11, 2017
Costa touched down at the Torino-Caselle airport later that evening, as reports in Italian media confirmed the deal, and Juventus live-tweeted Costa’s arrival, bidding him welcome in his new sporting home.
The transaction is a tidy bit of business for Bayern. Juventus are reportedly taking Costa on loan for a fee of €6 million with an obligatory option to buy for a fee of €40 million, bringing the total price to €46 million with the majority to be paid next year.
That price falls much closer to Bayern’s initial asking price of €50 million than to Juventus’s reported offer of €35 million - a mere €5 million more than what Bayern paid Shakhtar Donetsk in 2015. That total of €46 million neatly offsets the €45.2 that Bayern will pay Real Madrid over the next two years for James Rodriguez.
@douglascosta è a Torino ⚪⚫ pic.twitter.com/fg0b1dVAYk
— JuventusFC (@juventusfc) July 11, 2017
The Douglas Costa experiment at Bayern Munich has thus come to a close. Costa dazzled the Bundesliga in his first half-season, winning recognition by his peers as “player of the Hinrunde” 2015/16. He struggled to recapture that magic thereafter.
In his two seasons with Bayern, Costa played in 77 games, scored 14 goals and provided 27 assists across competitions. After playing a grand total of 3,408 minutes under Pep Guardiola, Costa saw his playing time shrink dramatically to 1,925 minutes under Carlo Ancelotti.
That late resurgence of both Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben no doubt played a major part in Costa’s decision to seek playing time elsewhere. Costa now will take his chances with la Vecchia Signora in white and black. Alles Gute, Douglas!