At some point, Juventus might finally sell Paul Pogba who has half of Europe chasing him. If that does go through, maybe even this summer, the Italian champions will try to bring in Axel Witsel from Zenit as his replacement.
Pogba, 22, seems to have a new and different suitor with every week that goes by. Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain and most recently Chelsea and Barcelona. Not everything might be true and could be nothing more than name dropping, but it’s easy to understand why Juventus are already thinking ahead, considering the amount of interest he is generating and their inability to compete with the big money around the continent.
So if Pogba, viewed as probably the best young central midfielder in the world today, does make the move and leave the Serie A giants, Juventus have a plan in place that includes trying to sign Axel Witsel from Zenit, where the Belgian international has been playing since 2012.
According to the Italian press, Witsel and Juventus are already discussing contract terms, but the transfer fee reported, $18 million, seems weird considering the Russian club signed him from Benfica for €40 million although as always with transfers in Portugal and sometimes Russia, you don’t really know where the money is actually going to.
Witsel is still signed with Zenit until 2017 and has yet to win the league with the richest club in Russia. He has appeared 54 times, scoring six goals, for Belgium. The defensive midfielder has 70 league appearances for Zenit, scoring 11 goals and adding five assists.