Randal Kolo Muani's 81st-minute equaliser earned Juventus a 1-1 draw in Cagliari on Sunday 11 October 2026, and the pass that made it came from another summer arrival, 19-year-old Kerim-Sam Alajbegović. Juventus made Kolo Muani's move from Paris Saint-Germain permanent on 2 August for a reported €38m, plus up to €12m in add-ons, on a five-year contract to June 2031. The goal won a point. The fair question is whether the season so far backs a deal of that size, and where the data says he does earn his place.
What the goal changed, and what it did not
Kolo Muani has started all six of Juventus's Serie A games, playing 539 minutes. That trust is clear in the line-ups: Jonathan David has 57 league minutes and Nick Woltemade 82. In Cagliari he had two shots, one on target, two key passes and won five of his 11 duels, and his 7.83 match rating was his best of the season.
It also shows how much one game moves a small sample. Before Cagliari, across five starts and 449 minutes, he had no league goals, a Goal Threat of 0.5 and a Scout52 Score of 2.5. One finish took the Goal Threat to 2.7 and the S52 to 3.3. That is a real improvement, but it lifts him from the bottom of the scale to Average for an attacker, not into the range Juventus will have expected for the fee.
The form line is moving the right way. His match ratings read 5.2 at Frosinone, 6.6 against Parma, 5.9 against AC Milan, 6.3 at Sassuolo (where he made his one assist), then 7.6 in the 2-0 home win over Atalanta on 20 September and 7.83 in Cagliari. His two best games are his two most recent.
The longer view: Tottenham to Turin
The 539 minutes are thin, but they do not stand alone. Kolo Muani spent 2025/26 on loan at Tottenham, and that season gives a much fuller picture: 1,682 Premier League minutes, an S52 of 3.1 and an Explosive Winger archetype (archetypes describe how a player plays, not the position on the team sheet).
| Season | Mins | S52 | Goal Threat | Chance Creation | Ball Carry | Passing | Defensive | Shots / 90 | Shot Acc. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026/27 JuventusSerie A · Needs 600 mins | 539 | 3.3 | 2.7 | 3.5 | 5.9 | 4.1 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 44% |
| 2025/26 Tottenham (loan)Premier League · Explosive Winger | 1,682 | 3.1 | 0.3 | 3.9 | 5.7 | 1.5 | 5.5 | 0.8 | 27% |
Green = the better of the two seasons, red = the weaker. He is shooting more often and more accurately in Serie A, but the overall level has barely moved.
Put the two seasons together and the attacking return is the hard number for Juventus: two league goals and two assists in 2,221 minutes since the start of 2025/26. There are genuine gains in Serie A. He is taking 1.5 shots per 90 against 0.8 at Tottenham, hitting the target with 44% of them against 27%, and his Passing has moved from 1.5 to 4.1. But the defensive work that propped up his Spurs profile has dropped away (Defensive 5.5 to 1.0, tackles and interceptions from 1.66 to 0.5 per 90), so the overall score sits at 3.3 against 3.1. Across two clubs and two leagues, he is grading at about the same level.
Where he does contribute: carrying the ball
The one composite that holds up at both clubs is Ball Carry: 5.7 at Tottenham, 5.9 at Juventus, Above Avg for a Tier 1 attacker both times. He wins 1.34 dribbles per 90 and is the forward who takes the ball up the pitch and draws contact (he won two fouls in Cagliari). For a coach who wants a centre-forward to run the channels and drag defenders out of shape, that is a real job he does. It is just not the job a €38m striker is usually paid for, which is goals and Goal Threat, and that is where he grades Average.
How he compares with Juventus's other forwards
The sharper problem for Kolo Muani is inside his own dressing room. Every other Juventus forward in this table grades higher on S52, even with the small-sample warnings attached.
| Player | Mins | G / A | S52 | Goal Threat | Chance Creation | Ball Carry | Passing | Duels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Randal Kolo MuaniJuventus · 27 · permanent from PSG | 539 | 1 / 1 | 3.3 | 2.7 | 3.5 | 5.9 | 4.1 | 3.3 |
| Kerim-Sam AlajbegovićJuventus · 19 · summer signing | 274 | 0 / 1 | 5.7 | 1.5 | 8.4 | 6.7 | 9.5 | 1.0 |
| Francisco ConceiçãoJuventus · 23 | 409 | 1 / 1 | 7.9 | 8.9 | 8.3 | 7.9 | 7.3 | 0.9 |
| Nicolás GonzálezJuventus · 28 | 288 | 1 / 0 | 8.2 | 6.5 | 7.6 | 7.8 | 9.4 | 8.8 |
| Edon ZhegrovaJuventus · 27 · 123 mins only | 123 | 2 / 1 | 9.4 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 9.5 | 9.7 | 1.9 |
Green = column best, red = column lowest. 26/27 Serie A league data to 11/10/2026. All five are under 600 minutes; read Zhegrova's 9.4 as a flag, not a level, as it comes from 123 minutes and one start.
Kolo Muani has more minutes than anyone here, and at the lowest S52 in the group he is also the only one under 5. Francisco Conceição (7.9) is doing the goal-threat work, with 8.9 on that composite in 409 minutes. Nicolás González (8.2 in 288 minutes) brings the defensive and duel work that Kolo Muani gave Tottenham and has not shown in Turin (Defensive 9.7, Duels 8.8). Zhegrova's 9.4 is eye-catching, but most of it rests on a 30-minute appearance at Sassuolo in which he scored twice, so it needs a lot more football before it means much.
The 19-year-old who made the goal
Alajbegović is the one to watch. In 274 minutes his Passing (9.5) and Chance Creation (8.4) are both in the top 25% for under-21 attackers, and in Cagliari he made four key passes in 45 minutes, the last of them for the equaliser. Last season at Red Bull Salzburg he graded 9.0 as an Elite Inside Forward over 1,913 minutes, with nine goals and three assists. That score is benchmarked against the Austrian league's level, not the top five; translated to Tier 1, his Ball Carry reads 8.7, Passing 8.6 and Goal Threat 7.0. Still strong for a teenager. His Goal Threat in Serie A so far (1.5) is the one gap, and that will be the test as his minutes grow.
The match itself ended in a scrap: Juventus coach Luciano Spalletti and Cagliari coach Fabio Pisacane were both sent off in stoppage time, after Daniel Maldini, on a summer loan from Atalanta, had put Cagliari ahead on 20 minutes.
Randal Kolo Muani
Kerim-Sam Alajbegović
Francisco Conceição
For how the rest of the summer's big moves have started, see Summer Signings, Early Verdict: How the 19 Transfers We Analysed Have Started.
A runner Juventus trust, not yet a scorer they paid for
Kolo Muani is Juventus's first-choice centre-forward on selection: six starts from six, and David and Woltemade barely used. He carries the ball well (Ball Carry 5.9 at Juventus, 5.7 at Tottenham) and he is shooting more often and more accurately than he did in England. His last two games are his best two.
But a reported €38m fixed fee buys a striker on an S52 of 3.3 and two league goals in 2,221 minutes across two seasons, the lowest S52 among Juventus's forwards, with the lowest score in the group on three of the five composites in the comparison table. At 539 minutes he is 61 short of an archetype, so the next few games will settle a lot. For now, the data backs the selection more than the price.
The Bottom Line
The equaliser in Cagliari mattered, and so did the trend behind it: his two best ratings of the season have come in his two most recent league games. The data is also fair to him on Ball Carry, which has held above average at two clubs. What the numbers do not yet show is a €38m goalscorer. Across 2,221 league minutes since the start of 2025/26 he has two goals, and his S52 of 3.3 is the lowest among Juventus's forwards, and the 19-year-old who set up his goal already grades higher. The sample is short enough to change quickly. On the evidence to 11 October, Juventus have bought a hard-working runner and are still waiting for the goals the fee implies.
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