Born in Naples on 03/10/88, graduated in Philosophy and Politics from the Oriental University of Naples. He has been working for TMW since 2008 and was deputy editor for 10 years. Sent to follow the national team
Fiorentina, who after thirteen days of the championship are just one point from the top, is the biggest revelation of this start to the championship. Not because there has been a lack of results in recent years, much less finals. But thinking that a completely new team (with a new coach, with new men in key roles) could start much better than last season was a difficult prediction to make in July.
Great credit goes to Raffaele Palladino, a pragmatic and hard-working coach who was able to quickly disavow his initial idea of football to make Fiorentina fly which this year started again without the best player of recent years, namely Nico Gonzalez. The Argentine, like other top players from the recent Viola past, left Florence to join the Juventus cause. And he too, like those before him who made this decision, is making the fortunes of… Fiorentina.
Due to rivalries, history and friction, selling a player to Juventus for a flamboyant supporter is always the worst possible news. Yet thinking with the heart and not with the head, as an entrepreneur and not as a fan, the operations carried out with the Agnelli family’s club were the best deals that Fiorentina could think of for president Rocco Commisso’s club. Even the number one of the Viola club recently admitted it: “It was right to keep Chiesa the first year of my management, right to sell him the second. It was also right to sell Vlahovic. Did Nico Gonzalez want to go to Juve? This is life, what can you do… But the 150 million of euros collected by Juve for those three who helped us build the team”. They are even more: Federico Chiesa was sold for around 55 million euros in the summer of 2020, Dusan Vlahovic in January 2022 for around 80. And then Nico Gonzalez: last summer the Juventus club spent 38 million between the fixed portion and bonuses of euros. Total? 173 million euros.
Chiesa sold out for 12, Vlahovic an elephant in a glass cabinet. Nico (for now) an unknown
The problem isn’t even the over 170 million euros spent on three Fiorentina players. But how have these investments made it, from a sporting and also (above all) economic point of view. In Turin, with the farewell of Max Allegri, the doors of Continassa also closed for Federico Chiesa: a year after the expiry of the contract, Giuntoli did not even start negotiations for the renewal of his contract and in the end he sold him to Liverpool for 12 million euros.
Dusan Vlahovic could find himself in the same situation next summer: he has a contract valid until 30 June 2026, above all a salary of 12 million euros net per season. Details which, combined with a performance on the pitch that convinces at one time and doesn’t at another, make the Serbian a player whose contract is difficult to renew. But also difficult to sell.
And then there is Nico Gonzalez, a player on whom it is not yet possible to give a judgment because up to now he has known JMedical more than the Juventus Training Center
And the only real deal was made by Fiorentina: Moise Kean is worth much more than 18 million
In all of this, since Commisso became president of Fiorentina the only important deal that has gone the other way has been Moise Kean. Since Vlahovic’s farewell, Fiorentina had never solved the center forward problem and today the striker born in 2000 who Juventus sold for 13 million euros plus a five million bonus is the best possible answer that the summer transfer market could give.
It is a fact that at Juventus, given the presence of Vlahovic, Kean could not perform as he is performing at Fiorentina. However, it is equally obvious that a center forward like this would have been useful for Juventus today. He thanks Palladino, especially Commisso: in recent years he has always emerged victorious from negotiations with the Juventus club.