Pape Matar Sarr left Tottenham to join Juventus on an initial loan deal in the summer. Buzz around the midfielder is now slowly growing in Italy.
The Bianconeri’s deal for the Senegal international accelerated very quickly in the transfer window. This was largely because Roberto De Zerbi had publicly revealed the player’s desire to leave.
Sarr hasn’t exactly been a regular in Turin yet, featuring in three games in all competitions. On joining, he had to recover from a muscle injury and that had held him back.
Now, he’s winning over fans and one of them is manager Luciano Spalletti.
Confidence Sarr will come good
Today’s print edition of TuttoSport has a detailed feature on the Tottenham loanee, who was signed as an alternative to Franck Kessie. When the Ivorian rejected Juve, they had to act fast and the club’s executives became alert to the idea of signing Sarr.
They assessed a lot of his footages from the last season in London. Despite the club’s poor form, they felt the midfielder will offer value to their squad.
He is now seen as a player of ‘absolute value’.
Spalletti is also increasingly convinced too. TuttoSport highlight that before Juve’s loss to Sassuolo, he had big praise for him.
“He’s a complete player, he has this ease of running and you find him everywhere, precise and punctual. When you think you can’t bring the team together down there, he gets there. He has this running ability and deep stamina.”
“In this exploration, he brings quality because he knows the tackle, he knows the technical quality, the finishing. We’re convinced we have a strong player at our disposal, and he’ll show it to us starting tomorrow if necessary.”
This was followed by Sarr impressing against NEC Nijmegen and Atalanta. Now, he is expected to start against Cagliari at the weekend, having done well during the international break too.
| Pape Matar Sarr — club statistics | 2024/25 | 2025/26 | 2026/27 so far |
|---|---|---|---|
| Club | Tottenham | Tottenham | Juventus (loan) |
| Appearances | 55 | 37 | 3 |
| Starts | 33 | 22 | 1 |
| Total minutes played | 2,926 | 2,212 | 153 |
| Goals | 6 | 2 | 0 |
| Assists | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Goals + assists | 8 | 6 | 0 |
| Minutes per goal | 488 | 1,106 | — |
Big chance to make impact
At Tottenham, Sarr often had his development strangled by injuries and the club’s lack of planning. Now at Juve, he is back fit and is expected to play quite a bit due to their injury crisis in midfield.
The 24-year-old should see this as a golden opportunity to make a real impact. It will also help him join the Bianconeri permanently and if Juve do qualify for the Champions League, it would only favour Sarr.
The next few months will be key in all of this. Manuel Locatelli and Khephren Thuram are out until 2027 and this should give the Spurs loanee a big chance.
