OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Koni De Winter signs with Genoa on loan

The moves are starting to be put in motion.

For the second consecutive season, young Belgian center back Koni De Winter will be joining a Serie A side that will be hoping to survive the drop back down to Serie B.

Of course, with it comes Juventus’ hope that all goes well at the Luigi Ferraris this coming season.

Juventus officially announced Friday night that the 21-year-old De Winter has joined newly promoted Genoa on a season-long loan deal for the 2023-24 campaign. With it comes two ways to make the loan deal a permanent move to Genoa — the first being his new club achieving certain sporting marks (namely something along the lines of staying in Serie A) that would make it an obligation, while the second involving a simple option to buy if those “sporting objectives” are not reached this season. In both cases, Genoa would pay €8 million with another €2 million in add-ons and performance-related bonuses.

Here is the official wording of the deal, courtesy of Juventus’ press office:

Turin, 11 August 2023 – Juventus Football Club S.p.A. announces that an agreement has been reached with Genoa Cricket and Football Club S.p.A. for the temporary free disposal, until 30 June 2024, of the registration rights of the player Koni De Winter.

The agreement entails:

The obligation for Genoa to definitely acquire the player’s registrations rights, subject to the achievement of certain given sporting objectives by the end of the season 2023/2024;

The right for Genoa to definitively acquire the player’s registration rights in case these given objectives are not achieved.

In both cases, the agreed consideration for the definitive acquisition is € 8 million, payable in four years, which might be increased up to a maximum of € 2 million upon achievement of further performance objectives over the duration of the employment contract with the player.

De Winter was part of the squad that traveled to the United States for Juventus’ preseason tour, but didn’t appear in either of the friendlies against AC Milan or Real Madrid. He was, however, in the starting lineup for the Juventus Black-Juventus White friendly at the Allianz Stadium earlier this week — which replaced the usual regular senior team vs. primavera/Next Gen friendly at Villar Perosa — before coming off at halftime as part of multiple changes by Max Allegri.

During his loan spell at Empoli last season, De Winter appeared in 14 league games before a knee injury ended his year two months early. He was healthy in time to take part in Belgium’s short stay at the Under-21 Euros, appearing in all three group stage games.