Reports: Danilo expected to leave Juve in January, won’t be part of Supercoppa squad

The man who is currently club captain appears to have played his final minutes in bianconero.

In the moments following Juventus’ 2024 finale against Fiorentina on Sunday night, Juventus captain Danilo waived to the fans in the curva just like pretty much every one of his teammates. However, there might have been a little bit more behind it than somebody who will be appearing the Allianz Stadium in a few weeks time.

And we figured out as to why less than 24 hours later.

Romeo Agresti reported Monday that Danilo — who has been Juve’s captain the last 2 1⁄2 years — is expected to leave the club he has called home since 2019 during the January transfer window. This comes as Juventus and Napoli are reportedly discussing a potential deal for the 33-year-old Danilo, who currently has sixth months left on his current and has seen his playing time significantly reduced during the first four months of the Thiago Motta era. Napoli manager Anotnio Conte is reportedly keen on bringing Danilo to Naples, with the former Juve coach very much playing a key role in the Brazilian’s desire to stay in Serie A rather than go elsewhere when he does end up leaving Turin next month like he is expected to do.

A mere half-hour after Agresti’s report, Fabrizio Romano reported that Danilo will not be part of Juventus’ traveling squad to Saudi Arabia for the four-team Italian Super Cup mini-tournament where Motta’s squad will face AC Milan on Friday.

So if you wanted yet another sign that Juventus’ relationship with Danilo is pretty much over, the fact that he reportedly won’t be called up for the Supercoppa despite so many injuries at the back is a pretty clear one. Even if they are expecting him to leave, he could have even been brought along as a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency kind of option off the bench considering Juventus basically have two natural fullbacks (Andrea Cambiaso and Nicolo Savona) and two center backs (Pierre Kalulu and Federico Gatti) currently healthy.

But this is another instance of Cristiano Giuntoli being the ruthless front office leader that he is. If you’re out of the project, then you’re out of the project and that’s that.

The key for Giuntoli now is the obvious one: Get at least one defender — although, it’s pretty much assumed now that Danilo is on the way out that he will sign two — in as soon as you can. Juventus will be playing every three or four days for what will basically be the first six weeks of 2025, and with a squad that has already been tested depth-wise for weeks now, being even the more shorthanded is something nobody wants to see happen for much longer.

For now, though, Danilo’s days at Juventus are very much winding down. And it looks like we won’t be seeing much of him until the press release about his departure is posted on the Juve website. Quite the quiet kind of exit for somebody who has been such a good servant to the club for over five years now.