Juventus have agreed personal terms with Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez (33), with the Argentine willing to sign a three-year deal through to 2029 at around €5.5m net per season, according to Sky Italia and transfer reporter Nico Schira. The sticking point is not the player – it is the club-to-club negotiation, with Villa holding firm on a fee that Italian and English media consistently place in the €10–15m bracket.

Juventus’s failure to qualify for the Champions League this season has compressed the available transfer budget, making that figure genuinely difficult to meet and forcing the Bianconeri to keep alternatives warm in parallel.

Juventus’s goalkeeper search reaches a new stage

The pursuit of Martinez follows Juventus abandoning a more expensive move for Alisson – for context on that earlier thread, see Juventus given Alisson lifeline after Liverpool managerial shakeup – before reactivating contacts with Martinez’s entourage in early June. According to Tuttomercatoweb’s Niccolò Ceccarini, those conversations have now progressed to the point where personal terms are formally in place.

Vicario remains the most concrete fallback. As covered here in Vicario rising on Juventus goalkeeper shortlist, Tottenham are open to a sale and the player is keen on a Serie A return, which gives Juventus a credible Plan B if the Martinez fee proves unbridgeable.

Martinez’s situation at Villa & the fee obstacle

Martinez signed an extension at Villa Park running through to 2028/2029, reportedly worth approximately €7m net per season – above Juventus’s internal wage ceiling of roughly €6m net, set around Kenan Yildiz’s contract. The reported Juventus offer of €5.5m net represents a meaningful pay cut for Martinez, which Italian outlets frame as a deliberate signal of his intent to make the move happen.

Villa have already begun identifying potential replacements between the posts, indicating they are open to a sale in principle. The relationship between the two clubs has recent precedent – the Douglas Luiz situation demonstrated both the channel and its friction points. Jan Oblak at Atletico Madrid is also being monitored as a secondary alternative, per Ceccarini.

What needs to happen for the deal to complete

Personal terms agreed is a significant step, but Martinez has not yet formally pushed Villa to facilitate a move – and without that pressure, Villa have little incentive to reduce their valuation. Italian reports indicate Martinez views Juventus as the ideal destination to close his career and is prepared to make that request once club-to-club talks intensify.

The coming weeks will be decisive: if Juventus cannot close the fee gap with Villa, movement on Vicario is expected to accelerate quickly, which would effectively signal that the Martinez operation has been shelved.