“There was no contact”, claims Dušan Vlahović, contradicting Juventus story over contract expiry

“There was no contact”, claims Dušan Vlahović, contradicting Juventus story over contract expiry In what is seemingly a contradiction of what ex- Juventus CEO Damien Comolli stated last season, Dušan Vlahović has claimed that there were no conversations with the club over a new contract as his old one expired at the end of last summer. Towards the end of May, Comolli had stated that the club wanted to keep him but were told by the player to discuss the matter at the end of the season. “We would like to continue [with Vlahović], how I don’t know. He told us, let’s meet at the end of the season. That’s it.” However, speaking in Serbian media, Vlahović has claimed that no concrete discussions occured. “For three years it has been written that I was refusing a renewal, but the only truth is that I have not had any concrete discussions with the club about it. There were only comments like, ‘We should talk about your contract,’ ‘Maybe you should renew, sign a new contract,’ but everything remained at that level. There were no concrete talks, in which we sat down and discussed it.” The 26-year-old told Mozzart Sport ( via La Gazzetta dello Sport ). “I’m sure that partly affected the fans too. It’s not pleasant when the stadium boos you in a friendly match against the Under 23 team. “While every day there was talk and emphasis on renewing my contract with Juventus, I never had a single concrete conversation with the club’s management. This is the only truth. “I only spoke to the CEO [Comolli] towards the end of last season and after it was over. The last time we spoke was on June 2nd: that conversation ended without an agreement and there has been no contact with Juventus since then. There was a lot of talk about me setting different conditions, but that wasn’t true. And the injury certainly didn’t help my situation.” The Serbian forward has since signed for Turkish giants Beşiktaş, having inked a three-year deal that will fetch him a gross annual salary of €9.38 million . Juve’s reasons Juventus have been looking to reduce their wage bill for a while. To that end, they’d been keen to adjusting Vlahović’s salary. The club were willing to offer him a contract worth €6 million per year, while the player wanted one worth close to €8 million per year . Vlahović’s salary for the 2025/26 season alone came close to €12 million . Injury issues also did not help Vlahović’s case, something he too acknowledged. “I started the season on the bench for a well-known reason: because I was entering the final year of my contract. Sure, two new strikers had also arrived, but, in my opinion, that was the only reason I started the season on the bench. “Then I started playing again and at that point Spalletti arrived [after Igor Tudor’s dismissal], whom I want to thank for everything he did for me last year and for wanting me to stay at Juventus. The injury stopped me at a really good time and my whole season just went up in smoke.”