Fiorentina Eye João Mário Loan as Juventus Seek Cut-Price Exit | OneFootball

Fiorentina are in advanced talks to take João Mário on loan from Juventus, with an option to buy set at a total fee of €8-9m, according to Gianluca Di Marzio, Sky Sport Italia’s transfer correspondent.

The 26-year-old full-back has no future at Continassa after a difficult first season in Turin. He transferred from FC Porto in the summer of 2025 for €12m, but he managed just 13 appearances in black and white, contributing a single assist, before being packed off to Bologna in January as part of the arrangement that brought Emil Holm the other way.

João Mário trains with Juventus.

Porto’s Sell-On Clause Bites

Neither Juventus nor Bologna activated their respective purchase options at the end of that loan spell, leaving Mário back in Turin with no clear path into the first team. Complicating any sale further, Porto are owed a 10 per cent cut of the profit from a future transfer – a clause that yields nothing in the current scenario given his value has fallen well below the original acquisition fee.

At Bologna he showed considerably more, picking up two goals across 15 appearances, but that return was insufficient to convince the Rossoblu to spend. Fiorentina, who have been working the phones hard this window, now represent a concrete exit route – and a sensible one given their need for a dynamic right-sided option. Similar loan-with-option frameworks have shaped several of Juventus’ outgoing deals this summer, as seen in the Kolo Muani loan structure and the ongoing Zhegrova discussions with Fiorentina.

Talks at Advanced Stage

Di Marzio reports contacts between the clubs are continuous, with the structure expected to be a loan followed by an option to buy exercisable at the end of the loan, bringing the total outlay to between €8m and €9m. For Juventus, recouping anything close to their original investment may be difficult; clearing the wage and freeing the squad slot is important.