Juventus, Alajbegović and 10 others: the Bosnian is the only Juventus player with an international outlook

The Bosnian is the only Juventus player who has

Only two Serie A players feature among the 30 candidates for the Ballon d'Or and the nominees for the other awards that France Football will hand out alongside the main prize: Lautaro Martinez, Inter captain, among the 30, and Kerim Alajbegović, among the nominations for the best young player award. One is the Argentine born in 1997, a Serie A title winner, World Cup winner and top scorer. The other is Juventus' young talent. No other Juventus player has come close, on performance, to being taken into consideration.

That recognition, and the credentials the 2007-born player brought with him to Turin, not least his strong performances at the World Cup in a Bosnia shirt, would be enough for Juventus, and Luciano Spalletti, to think about backing Alajbegović without hesitation. Nor is there any lack of conviction in Turin, starting with Frederic Massara, Juventus sporting director.

So far Alajbegović has come into the team gradually: he stayed on the bench for 90 minutes against Frosinone, played 33 minutes off the bench against Parma, then started and was on the pitch for 64 minutes against AC Milan. Against AC Milan, Alajbegović played a good first half-hour, starting on the left and drifting inside, before fading as the game wore on and making way for Boga.

With Yildiz injured until November and Boga himself set to be out for around a month, Juventus at this moment must place unconditional trust in Alajbegović, for two complementary reasons: necessity and conviction, because it would be at the very least strange not to play one of only two Serie A players taken into consideration by the awards of France Football.

In a Juventus side struggling to create play, chances and goals, Alajbegović must be given regular minutes, both because of the current situation and for the future. Aged 18, he will turn 19 on 21 September, and after making 44 appearances and scoring 13 goals for Salzburg last season, plus 14 appearances and 2 goals for his national team, the Bosnian must be one of the pillars on which to rebuild a winning Juventus, both with Yildiz absent and when the Turk is available again, and in that case it will be up to Spalletti to find the way and the solutions to make the two talents coexist. Alajbegovic and Yildiz are the only two Juventus players with an international outlook. Right now, with the Turk out, the Bosnian is the only one.