Juventus Chief Admits Club Would Be Powerless to Stop Paulo Dybala Joining Barcelona

​Juventus chief executive Giuseppe Marotta has admitted that the Bianconeri will be powerless to keep Barcelona target Paulo Dybala should the superstar decide to leave the club in the future.

Dybala has long been linked with a move to Camp Nou and has drawn comparisons once more with Lionel Messi after starting the 2017/18 campaign with 10 goals in his first seven games.

"The player is the one that decides his fate, and if he wants to leave, it'll be impossible to keep him," Marotta explained when speaking with Italian media outlet Premium Sport this week.

Juve lost Paul Pogba to Manchester United in a world record deal in 2016 as the player was keen to rejoin his former club. The reigning Serie A champions will at least be able to dictate an enormous price for Dybala, as they did with Pogba, as no Juve player have release clauses.

Unlike in Spain, such clauses are not a mandatory part of Italian contracts. Juve benefitted from triggering them to buy Gonzalo Higuain and Miralem Pjanic last year, but Marotta said he does not include them in his own players' contracts.

"[Release clauses are] crucial in a player-club relationship in Spain, but only Higuain and Pjanic had them in Italy. I'm against giving clauses to our players," he commented.

As for the 'damage' created by Neymar's €220m move from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain, Marotta believes it "can't be calculated that easily," but the impact of it "goes beyond" simply the money that Barcelona received from the deal.

"I also take into account that [Barcelona] lost a player like him towards the end of the transfer window," Marotta added, suggesting he fears a need from Barça to replace Neymar.