One of Juventus’ best youngsters is heading to the Italian capital for the next few months.
It was back just a few days before Christmas where we figured Dean Huijsen was going to be the next Juventus youngster to head to Frosinone on loan to get more playing time. It all made sense — he would be at a club that embraces young talents and has shown not shyness when it comes to handing them playing of faith regardless of the team’s overall form.
We were just waiting for January to arrive before things were made official.
Things were made official during the first weekend of January. But it most certainly didn’t happen at the club we had been expecting it to the last two weeks.
Juventus announced on Saturday that the 18-year-old Huijsen, one of the club’s young jewels, will spend the second half of the 2023-24 on loan at Roma. It was a move that only materialized over the last few days, with Roma manager Jose Mourinho — the same one who Huijsen had a nice handshake with after Juve’s win over his new team in the final game of 2023 — playing a big part in bringing the young Dutchman to the Italian capital. Juventus will reportedly receive a fee of around €700,000 for the dry loan until the end of the season, with other a couple of other performance-related clauses built in as well.
Huijsen was already on the training field with his new teammates on Saturday. He will wear the No. 3 jersey during his time with Roma.
The official wording of the deal courtesy of Juventus’ website:
Dean Huijsen will spend the second part of the 2023/2024 season with AS Roma, joining the capital club on a dry loan deal, without right of redemption, until 30 June 2024.
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Dean has increasingly become a leader of the Next Gen side and since the beginning of the 2023/2024 season – together with Kenan Yildiz and Joseph Nonge – he has trained regularly with the First Team, making his official senior debut at San Siro against Milan. That very match against the Rossoneri, on 22 October 2023, was in fact the last step before his official move to the First Team, dated 7 November.
Now a new opportunity awaits in Rome, where he will continue his growth with the Giallorossi.
When asked about Huijsen’s arrival ahead of Roma’s game against Atalanta on Sunday, Mourinho said: “He is one of the most quality prospects in Europe. In the future he will be a great footballer. In our situation this was the only solution that could help us. We can help him grow, but he is not our player but one of Juventus.”
Mourinho’s influence clearly played a big role in attracting Huijsen and having his entourage spurn the agreement with Frosinone and have Juventus loan one of their best young talents out to a direct rival. Roma are currently in desperate need of depth in the center of defense, both due to injury and AFCON duties, that should give Huijsen a good chance of playing.
Because, at the heart of the matter, no matter where he ended up playing on loan, getting some actual playing time — something that he wasn’t getting with Juventus so far this season — is the most important thing. As his good buddy Kenan Yildiz has suddenly broken into the starting lineup after barely playing the first four months of the season, the same wasn’t able to be said about Huijsen. So now, let’s hope things change for the better while he’s out on loan and he can come back during the summer ready for what could be a much bigger role next season.
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