Juventus’ option to buy for Loïs Openda kicks in, but he’s not expected to actually stay

Lois Openda of Juventus FC sticks his tongue out during the serie Serie A Enilive match between AS Roma and Juventus FC at Stadio Olimpico on March 01, 2026 in Rome, Italy (Photo by Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto via Getty Images) | NurPhoto via Getty Images

On the final day of the summer mercato, Loïs Openda was a rather surprising arrival for arguably an even more surprising kind of deal. That mainly had to do with the fact that attached to his season-long loan deal, there was an incredibly easy to achieve obligation to buy clause that was almost certainly going to kick in barring complete disaster for a price that made him one of the more expensive pieces of business the club will have done for th 2025-26 season.

That obligation has now — albeit not yet announced by the club itself — has kicked in.

That is because Openda’s obligation to buy clause was dependent on Juventus finishing in the top half of the Serie A table this season. With Saturday’s win over Atalanta, Juve are now mathematically sure of doing just that with six games remaining on the schedule. And thus, the obligation to buy and make Openda’s move to Turin permanent is now a simple formality, with the whopping €40.6 million price tag now weighing heavily on the club’s books entering the summer mercato.

The total price of the Openda transfer will be €46 million, with the Belgian forward also earning €4 million net per season, according to previous reports.

With all of that being said, Openda is not expected to actually be a Juventus player when the 2026 summer transfer window comes to a close. Juve, by all accounts, will try and move Openda elsewhere and try to recoup as much of that massive obligation to buy price as they can to rid themselves of arguably their biggest blunder of the 2025 summer window.

If the past two months (or more) were any sort of hint, Openda is not in the plans of Juventus manager Luciano Spalletti. He hasn’t played a single second in the past five games. So as much as they might cut to Openda as part of the bench mob warming up at some point early in the second half and the match announcer might point him out as a potential option in attack, it hasn’t happened — and Spalletti clearly doesn’t even want to bring him on in any sort of capacity.

In recent weeks, Spalletti has preferred going with Arek Milik — somebody who up until a couple of weeks ago hadn’t played in nearly two full seasons — over Openda.

In 33 appearances this season, Openda has played just over 1,000 minutes and scored all of two goals. (That last goal he scored was in December, by the way.) That’s a far cry from the player who just two seasons ago scored 28 goals in all competitions for an RB Leipzig squad that qualified for the Champions League and subsequently got drawn against Juventus in the new-look league phase. (We won’t mention what season-changing event Openda was a part of in that game just to keep everybody from being even more made at this deal.)