Southampton announced on Tuesday evening the arrival of Juventus midfielder Mario Lemina in a deal worth a reported £18.1m.
Lemina, 23, has put pen to paper on a five-year deal that will run until June 2022 and arrives as Southampton's first high profile signing of the summer.
Mauricio Pellegrino’s side had only managed to sign 21-year-old defender Jan Bednarek prior to Lemina’s arrival, having spent most of the summer dealing with the future of captain Virgil van Dijk.
“I am really happy to have signed for Southampton,” Lemina told the club’s official website. “I think that it was the project that attracted me the most and the one my family was really behind. I am really happy to be here.”
The Gabon international only joined Juventus from Marseille on a permanent deal last summer but failed to establish himself as a first-team regular under Max Allegri.
With Juventus in the market for another box-to-box midfielder this summer, Lemina was forced to leave in search of regular first team football.
Lemina was limited to just eight starts in Serie A last season, making a further 11 appearances from the bench. Indeed, only two Juventus players had a better pass accuracy in the league last season than Lemina (90%).
