According to César Luis Merlo, who’s pretty plugged into the South American transfer scene, Flamengo has made a €15 million offer for Lucas Beltrán. The 24-year-old Argentine looks increasingly surplus to requirements at Fiorentina, which just confirmed Albert Guðmundsson and brought in Edin Džeko this summer, and he’s already been linked to a return to South America this summer.
A couple of months makes quite a difference, too. When River Plate was interested in May, the general sentiment around
here seemed to be that Beltrán was too good to give up on yet. Since then, though, Stefano Pioli has taken over and clearly doesn’t see him as a viable starter; in the past two friendlies, he’s used Primavera striker Riccardo Braschi and midfielder Jacopo Fazzini instead, opening the door for Flamengo.
I’m bummed out by the whole thing. I like el Vikingo a lot. He’s got the squarest head you’ve ever seen and he’s a good player who works hard and wants to involve his teammates. Unfortunately, the many things he does well aren’t striker things, and he is, at least in theory, a striker. 16 goals in 97 Viola appearances is a woeful return and his inexplicable inability to even take shots has only gotten more noticeable, highlighted by a couple of bad moments in the friendly against Carrarese.
I still believe in him long term but it might be time for everyone to move on. Flamengo’s got an excellent track record with reclamation projects from Italy, including Viola rejects Erick Pulgar, Pedro, and Gerson, and the presence of goal threats all across the front 3 means Beltrán would be able to focus on doing the things he does well instead of trying to score.
It doesn’t make any sense to keep him in Florence as the 4th striker and €15 million is a fair price for a talented guy who could yet crack the Argentina rotation. Flamengo has plenty of money from the Club World Cup and Beltrán seems like the kind of player who might be better suited to the South American game than the European one. His departure would also makes space for Fiorentina to invest in a young striker who can take a year or two to grow under Moise Kean and Džeko’s tutelage.
That’s just how it goes sometimes: everyone involved wants it to work but it just doesn’t. Regardless, it feels like Beltrán’s days in Florence are numbered, and Flamengo is certainly an interesting destination. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this one.
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