Vlahovic: Three Years Without Juventus Contract Talks
Besiktas striker Dusan Vlahovic told Mozzart Sport the exact date of his last conversation with Juventus management, and admitted no concrete contract talks took place for three years before that.
At the airport in Istanbul in late August, he was met by a crowd of fans he admits he wasn’t expecting. Besiktas had been chasing him all summer, and Dusan Vlahovic, after four and a half years in Turin, has for the first time spoken publicly, in detail, about how his split from Juventus actually played out.
In a wide-ranging interview for Mozzart Sport, published on September 3, the Serbian striker revealed the exact date of his last conversation with the Turin club’s management, and admitted that no concrete talks about a new contract took place for three years before that, even though the subject was written about daily.
Why Besiktas
Vlahovic became a free agent when his contract expired on June 30, 2026, and says he negotiated with several clubs before settling on Istanbul.
“There were a lot of talks with a lot of clubs. I was a free agent,” Vlahovic said in the interview for Mozzart Sport.
Besiktas’s president and sporting director, he says, flew to Belgrade repeatedly over the summer to convince him to sign, and the decision was also swayed by coach Vincenzo Italiano, with whom Vlahovic had worked before at Fiorentina.
Three years of talk, zero conversations
The part of the interview that drew the most attention was about the contract saga with Juventus, a story that had followed Vlahovic for the last three seasons.
“For three years, while people wrote about my contract renewal with Juventus and stressed it every single day, I never had a single concrete conversation with the club’s management,” Vlahovic said, adding that he last spoke with Juventus’s leadership on June 2, and that the meeting ended without an agreement.
After that date, he says, there was no further contact with Juventus.
- His contract expired on June 30, 2026
- His last conversation with the club’s management was on June 2
- He joined Besiktas as a free agent, with no transfer fee involved
Vlahovic speaks without bitterness about leaving the club where he spent four and a half years.
“In a fantastic mood. Juventus gave me a lot, and it’s a great honor that I wore that shirt,” he said, adding that he regrets the club didn’t win any trophies during his time there.
Part of the explanation for his chaotic final season in Turin lies in injury. Vlahovic was sidelined for four and a half months for surgery and recovery, so he missed preseason with Besiktas entirely, while his new teammates had already played seven or eight matches by the time he arrived. He started the season in Turin on the bench, which he attributes to entering the final year of his contract.
The goal is the title, the national team faces a test
Under Italiano, Besiktas has started the season with ambition, and Vlahovic doesn’t hide what he expects from himself and the team.
“I want to become champion with Besiktas,” he said.
The striker has already backed up that confidence. In the last round, he scored a hat trick as Besiktas beat Corum 6-2, confirming that, despite the long layoff, he’s quickly finding his form again.
Asked about Serbia’s failure to qualify for the World Cup, Vlahovic didn’t look for excuses.
“Since we weren’t at the World Cup, it means we didn’t deserve to be there,” he said, adding that Serbia can realistically fight for third place in its Nations League group, alongside Germany, the Netherlands and Greece.
Vlahovic hasn’t shut the door on a return to Turin, but says he isn’t thinking about it right now.
“In football, you can never know what might happen,” he concluded. For now, his focus is on Besiktas and on the national team’s match against Greece, in which Serbia is defending its shot at third place in the Nations League group.
