Gonzalo Higuain will leave Juventus and join a club outside Serie A, his brother and agent has confirmed.
Juve boss Andrea Pirlo confirmed last month that the striker will be allowed to leave as he will not be part of the first-team picture in 2020-21.
Higuain, who joined from Napoli in 2016 in a €90million deal, has won three Serie A titles and two Coppe Italia with the Bianconeri but spent most of 2018-19 out on loan with Milan and Chelsea.
His brother, Nicolas, says they have agreed to part ways with Juve a year before his contract expires and have already received approaches from clubs in Europe, China and the United States although none of those are of particular interest.
Gonzalo still has one year on his contract, but the club and Pirlo have unilaterally decided to say goodbye and we must therefore find a termination that represents a good deal for everyone, he told Tuttosport.
We haven t yet gone into the details; we ve only discussed the technical aspect. Pirlo and the management have decided there is no room for Gonzalo, so now we ll look for an agreement. I m sure there ll be no big problems because we have a fantastic relationship with the management.
113 Gonzalo is the only player with 100+ goals scored excluding penalties in Serie A in the last seven seasons (113 goals). Pipita.
— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo)
I think it ll take a few weeks for logistical reasons. I m in Buenos Aires and I m struggling to get to Turin due to the pandemic. We re talking at a distance, but it ll be important to meet.
We ve had many enquiries from France, England, Spain, China, the United States many proposals, but none to make your legs shake.
We ll assess things calmly, but two things are for sure: Gonzalo will not play in Italy anymore, and certainly not for Boca Juniors. He grew up with River Plate and will never move to their rivals.
He feels strong in his mind and body. He ll make the decision, but he wants to keep playing and play abroad. Maybe he ll return to Argentina in the future, but not now.
Nicolas Higuain admits he was surprised Pirlo was so quick to tell the striker to move on, although they appreciated the new coach s forthright approach.
We expected Pirlo to give Gonzalo a chance as we are talking about a striker who has scored 350 goals in recent years. It takes 10 years to achieve that and then, unfortunately, everything is quickly forgotten, he said.
Juve s ambition is to win the Champions League, but I don t know how many players we have who have won three league titles scoring 66 goals overall.
But we re football people and we know these things can happen. We appreciated Pirlo s honesty. He told Gonzalo to his face what he thought.
