Juve close in on North Korean Han, say reports

Italian champions Juventus are closing in on two promising teenage forwards – North Korea’s Han Kwang-song and Italian Pietro Pellegri – according to reports on Wednesday.

Crunch talks will take place midweek with Cagliari to bring 19-year-old Han to Turin, with Genoa’s Pellegri, 16, being targeted for a summer move, Gazetta Dello Sport and Sky Sports Italia reported.

Born in Pyongyang, Han spent some of his youth at a soccer academy in Barcelona before returning to his homeland to join FC Chobyong.

He returned to Italy in 2015 playing with Cagliari’s academy side before joining the first team last season, making his Serie A debut for the Sardinian outfit, and scoring his first goal in April.

This season Han was loaned to Serie B side Perugia where he has flourished, scoring seven goals in the current campaign.

Cagliari have valued the North Korean at 20 million euros ($24.6 million), a sum viewed as excessive by the sixtime reigning champions.

As part of the move, Juventus’s Italy Under-21 striker Alberto Cerri, currently on loan at Perugia, would move to the Sardinians.

Pellegri made history by becoming the youngest scorer in Serie A in May in Roma legend Francesco Totti’s farewell match and also became the youngest to net a brace earlier this season.

He has scored two goals in six appearances for Genoa in the current campaign.