(Bloomberg) -- Juventus shares rose to the highest level in more than a month on a report that Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola will become coach of the Italian soccer team from the next season.
Guardiola reached a preliminary deal with the club for a four-year contract, Italian newswire AGI reported, without citing anyone. He’ll earn 24 million euros ($26.7 million) a year, it said. A Juventus spokeswoman declined to comment as did City Football Group, the English club’s owner.
U.K. bookmakers’ odds suggest uncertainty remains over who will get the Juventus role, although Guardiola is the favorite for the job. SkyBet offered 11/8 on the Spaniard’s appointment but stopped short of going odds-on.
Juventus is seeking a new coach to replace Massimiliano Allegri who is leaving after failing to win the UEFA Champions League tournament. Last month the Italian team was knocked out of Europe’s elite club competition by the Dutch outsiders AFC Ajax NV. Allegri, 51, joined Juventus in 2014 and won five consecutive top soccer championships in Italy.
Failing again to win Europe’s top soccer award was a setback for the team backed by the billionaire Agnelli family, whose purchase of 34-year-old, five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo last year was seen in part as driven by a desire to win Europe’s most prestigious club competition. Under Allegri’s leadership, Juventus reached the Champions League’s final twice.
Juventus shares, which reached a record high earlier this year, boosted by the Ronaldo signing, were up 3.3% to 1.49 euros at 1.19pm in Milan, compared with a 1.7% decline for Italy’s FTSE MIB index.
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