Sevilla (Spain), Aug 27 (IANS) Spanish football club Sevilla on Thursday announced the signing of striker Fernando Llorente for three years on a permanent transfer from Italian football champions Juventus.
“The Spanish international striker is linked to Sevilla for the next three seasons, with a buyout clause of 20 million euros ($22.4 million),” Sevilla said in a statement.
The 30-year-old, who joined Juventus in the summer of 2013 from Spanish outfit Athletic Club Bilbao, scored 27 goals in 92 games in all competitions for the Italian giants.
However, the Spanish international fell down the pecking order last season and, although Carlos Tevez left for Boca Juniors this summer, Juventus head coach Massimiliano Allegri has Alvaro Morata, Mario Mandzukic and Paulo Dybala available for the current campaign.
Sevilla had been looking to reinforce their attack after allowing Carlos Bacca to join AC Milan in the summer and Llorente will compete with Kevin Gameiro and Borussia Dortmund loanee Ciro Immobile for a place in the team.
Llorente played nine seasons (2004-13) for Bilbao, where he made 111 goals in 327 games. His best records were achieved in the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, with 17 league goals and 18 respectively. In the last campaign he won the Zarra trophy, which honours the best scorer in the La Liga.
Llorente returns to Spain with the idea of resuming the role he lost in his last year in Turin and put a dent in the plans of Spain head coach Vicente del Bosque to be at Euro 2016.
