Juventus reportedly rejected an offer of €57 million from Liverpool for 22-year-old Merih Demiral in the last January transfer market.
As the traditional beliefs go by, the deadline day of a transfer window is always certain to be hectic and exasperating for its die-hard observers. Teams go on to pull off deals at the eleventh hour.
And as initially expected, the deadline day of the last Winter transfer window was nothing less than a frantic one.
Although Juventus didn’t complete any signing on that respective day, there was a last-ditch attempt from the English Premier League side Liverpool to steal one of Pirlo’s reputed defenders in the recently-concluded transfer market.
As reported by Sport Mediaset (via Football Italia), Juventus was found rejecting an offer, reported to be around €57 million, from Liverpool for Merih Demiral. The deal was understandably very close to being agreed upon.
Liverpool chose a different center back than Juventus’ Merih Demiral
Liverpool were keen on signing a defender to fill the void caused by the absence of Virgil van Dijk, hence targeting the Turkish defender for a possible acquisition.
The 29-year-old Dutchman has been recovering from the ACL injury he sustained in a Merseyside derby against Everton last October.
Even though Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp suggested a few weeks back that he would be back sooner than originally anticipated, it has been lately confirmed that this might be a season-ending injury for the centre-back.
Consequently, there was a heavy rush for a defensive reinforcement surrounding the Reds’ camp—which they eventually fulfilled via bringing in two centre-halves in Ozan Kabak and Ben Davies.
Since joining Juventus from Sassuolo in 2019, Demiral has encouraged the Bianconeri fans with his awe-inspiring performances, garnering loads of plaudits from around the world in the process.
In what has been a season plagued by some minor injury issues, Demiral has managed to make 14 apprentices across all competitions for the Old Lady.
He could have been at Anfield this time had not the boss Andrea Pirlo deemed the young defender as a part of his future plans in Turin.