ROME – Juventus completed the signing of Czech international midfielder Pavel Nedved from Lazio on Thursday for a reported transfer fee of around 80 billion lire ($35.27 million). „He has had the medical and has signed,“ a Juventus spokeswoman said, without giving details of the contract. Nedved, 28, joined Lazio from Sparta Prague in the summer of 1996. He struggled to hold down a first team place at Lazio in his first two seasons but grew in stature at the club and was an integral part of their Serie A and Italian Cup double winning side of 2000. Widely considered the best left-sided player in Serie A, Nedved was part of the Czech side which reached the final of Euro 96 and has won the Czech player of the year award three times in the past five years.

Lazio fans have staged sometimes violent protests in recent weeks over the club‘s decisions to sell Nedved and Argentine midfielder Juan Veron, who completed his British-record move to Manchester United earlier on Thursday. Juventus have been active in the transfer market since they lost out to AS Roma in the league title fight last month. They have bought goalkeeper Buffon and French defender Thuram from Parma and sold Zinedine Zidane to Real Madrid and striker Inzaghi to AC Milan.

Reuters