Fiorentina Pursues Joao Mario from Juventus in Loan Deal

Fiorentina are closing in on a move for Joao Mario, sensing opportunity where Juventus see only a dead end.

The Viola are in advanced talks to take the Portuguese full-back on loan from Juventus with an option to buy, in a package worth around €8-9 million, according to Sky Sport Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio. For a player signed for €12m from FC Porto in the summer of 2025, it underlines just how sharply his stock has fallen in Turin.

Porto, who secured a 10 per cent cut on any future profit when they sold him, stand to gain nothing. There is no profit here, only a loss being quietly written off.

Joao Mario’s time at Juventus never really started. Across his spell in black and white he managed just 13 appearances and a single assist, struggling to convince through a mixture of inconsistency and the sheer competition for places in the Bianconeri back line.

By January, Juventus had seen enough. He was sent to Bologna as part of an exchange that took Emil Holm to Turin, a deal that looked like a fresh start for both players. Joao Mario responded with a more solid run: 15 games, two goals, and the sense that he could still belong at Serie A level.

It still wasn’t enough to persuade either club. Bologna declined to make the move permanent. Juventus brought him back, but only as an asset to be moved on again, not as a player around whom to build.

That is where Fiorentina step in. The Tuscan club see a 26-year-old who already knows the league, who has shown he can contribute going forward, and who is available at a price that reflects his stalled development rather than his potential ceiling.

For Juventus, the deal would draw a line under a signing that never paid off, trimming the squad and recovering part of their initial outlay. For Joao Mario, it is something more important: a chance to prove he belongs at the sharp end of Serie A, not on the margins of someone else’s project.

If Fiorentina complete the move, the next time he pulls on a shirt in Italy, it will be with the clear knowledge that this is no longer an audition. At 26, this is the stage where careers are defined, not deferred.