Juventus sign Brazilian playmaker Diego

Juventus announced on Tuesday the signing of Brazilian playmaker Diego from Werder Bremen for a fee of 24.5 million euros.

The 24-year-old has signed a deal until June 2014 having spent three years in Germany after joining the club from Portugal’s Porto.

Diego’s last match for Werder will be in the German Cup final against Bayer Leverkusen this weekend.

Over three seasons he played 84 league matches for Werder, scoring 38 goals and he has appeared for his country 15 times.

He has been bought to replace Czech veteran Pavel Nedved who is retiring at the end of the season.

Diego’s fee will be paid over three seasons with an extra 2.5 million to be added on depending on his success with the Italians.

Serie A giants Juve are in the process of rebuilding having been relegated to Serie B in 2006 due to their role in a match-fixing scandal and administrative delegator Jean Claude Blanc said the Brazilian was an important part of that process.

“Due to his technical characteristics Diego is a fundamental part of the rebuilding of our team,” he said.

“We’ve always said that we want to build a team of young players and talented ones and Diego excudes both qualities.

“Despite his age of 24 years he’s a player of great experience with having already played at the highest level for seven years.”

Diego started his career at Pele’s old club Santos where as a teenager he formed a formidable attacking partnership with Robinho, now of Manchester City.

He moved to then Champions Legaue holders Porto in 2004 as a replacement for the Barcelona-bound Deco.

However, his Porto experience soon turned sour as he found himself out of favour with Dutch coach Co Ariaanse and he signed for Bremen two years later for six million euros.

He won league titles with Santos in 2002 and Porto in 2006 as well as two Copa America titles with Brazil in 2004 and 2007.