Leeds United's €40m Muharemović Deal Shows How a €2m Juventus Cast-Off Became a Premier League Prize

Leeds United are set to pay €40m for Sassuolo centre-back Tarik Muharemović, according to Italian transfer expert Gianluca Di Marzio. That fee alone makes the 23-year-old the second-most expensive signing in the club's history. But the real story sits one layer beneath the headline number.

Juventus sold Muharemović for just €2m in the summer of 2025. Twelve months later, Leeds are paying twenty times that figure for the same player. It is a case study in how quickly value can compound in modern football when a club gets the recruitment right, and how badly Serie A sides can misjudge their own academy graduates.

The Deal: How Muharemović Becomes Leeds' Second-Biggest Buy

Once completed, Muharemović will sign a contract with Leeds running until 2031, a six-year commitment that signals this is being treated as a long-term defensive foundation rather than a short-term promotion patch-up.

Only Rutter ranks higher

The €40m fee places Muharemović just behind Georginio Rutter as Leeds' record purchase. Rutter's move from Hoffenheim was worth a total of €40.5m, though that figure only reached that height after his subsequent transfer to Brighton & Hove Albion in 2024 triggered a €12.5m sell-on clause held by the German club.

• Georginio Rutter: €40.5m total (Hoffenheim, including sell-on from Brighton move)
• Tarik Muharemović: €40m (Sassuolo)

The parallel is not a coincidence. Both of Leeds' two most expensive deals now involve a selling club benefiting from a fee inflated well beyond the original transaction, a pattern that says as much about the market Leeds are shopping in as it does about the players themselves.

From Free Transfer to €40m Man: The Remarkable Rise

Muharemović's route to a £40m valuation began with no fee changing hands at all. Born in Ljubljana, he joined Juventus on a free transfer from Austrian side Wolfsberger AC back in 2021.

A year in Serie B, then a bargain sale

Juventus loaned him to Sassuolo for the 2024/25 season, a campaign he spent in Serie B as Sassuolo worked their way back to the top flight. Rather than integrate him into their own first-team plans, Juventus sold him permanently to Sassuolo that summer for a nominal €2m, a fee that in hindsight looks like a rounding error.

What followed was a breakout campaign few outside Italy saw coming. Muharemović became one of Serie A's most dependable centre-backs in 2025/26, starting regularly for a newly promoted Sassuolo side and holding his own against the division's best attacks. He also earned a starting role for Bosnia and Herzegovina at this summer's World Cup in North America, further cementing his profile among Premier League recruitment departments.

Why Leeds Are Betting Big on a Serie A Breakout Star

Leeds' willingness to commit €40m to a centre-back who was playing Serie B football barely two years ago is a clear statement of intent following promotion. It is the kind of spend that says the club expects to compete, not merely survive, in the Premier League.

The scouting case for Muharemović

Stefano Buonfino, Transfermarkt's Serie A expert, tracked Muharemović's rise closely and flagged him when rumours of an English move first surfaced in January.

"He had already shown a great deal of confidence and technical ability as a modern defender in Serie B. He has confirmed that in Serie A, even against top clubs and outstanding strikers. He has made a few mistakes, but that's understandable for a centre-back of his age playing for a newly promoted side. He has shown great consistency, and his place in the starting line-up has never been in doubt."

Buonfino also detailed the physical and technical profile that has made him such an attractive target:

"Physically very robust, particularly strong in aerial duels, where he can use his height and anticipation to his advantage. He is determined, reads the game well and anticipates moves. He also has good ball control and isn't afraid to break out of defence to join in the attack when the opportunity arises."

The numbers back up the scouting read. Across all competitions for Sassuolo, Muharemović has racked up 63 appearances, 4 goals and 4 assists, an unusually productive output for a centre-back still building his reputation.

Juventus's Silent Windfall: The Sell-On Clause Payoff

Juventus stand to collect roughly half of the €40m fee thanks to a 50% sell-on clause negotiated when they offloaded Muharemović last summer. That means a player they gave away for €2m is set to hand them close to €20m in pure profit, money the Italian club badly need as they attempt to fund their own squad rebuild.

A recurring pattern across Europe's top leagues

This is not an isolated case of a selling club cashing in twice on the same asset. Leeds' own record deal for Rutter followed an identical script, with Hoffenheim benefiting from his onward sale to Brighton. Elsewhere in this same transfer window, Luka Vuskovic's move to Brighton from Tottenham has been reported as the second most valuable Under-21 centre-back transfer on record, underlining just how aggressively Premier League clubs, from the traditional powers to newly promoted sides like Leeds, are now paying for proven young defensive talent regardless of the level it was developed at.

• Free transfer to Juventus: 2021 (from Wolfsberger AC)
• Loan to Sassuolo in Serie B: 2024/25 season
• Permanent sale to Sassuolo: €2m, summer 2025
• Breakout Serie A campaign: 2025/26
• Reported move to Leeds: €40m, with Juventus due roughly 50%

For Serie A clubs, the lesson is uncomfortable. A player deemed surplus to requirements at Juventus for a nominal fee has, within a single top-flight season, become worth 20 times that figure to a Premier League club. That gap is less about Muharemović's improvement and more about what English television revenue allows clubs like Leeds to spend.

What happens next

The deal is not yet formally confirmed, but with terms reportedly agreed and a contract through 2031 on the table, Leeds appear close to completing the signing before the new Premier League season gets underway. Expect Daniel Farke's side to move quickly given the defensive reinforcement is likely aimed squarely at Premier League survival and beyond.

For Juventus, the sell-on windfall arrives at a useful moment as the club looks to fund fresh signings of their own following a period of financial restraint. Watch for how they reinvest the estimated €20m proceeds, and whether this deal prompts other Serie A clubs to insert similarly aggressive sell-on clauses into their own low-fee academy sales going forward.

More broadly, the transfer adds to a growing body of evidence that Premier League clubs, promoted sides included, are now the default landing spot for Serie A's breakout performers, provided the price is right and the clause structures are in place to reward the clubs clever enough to have kept faith along the way.