5 years ago, Fiorentina was sinking into an abyss of misery. Giuseppe Iachini was at the helm, although the club would sack him in November only for his replacement San Cesare Prandelli to resign in March, opening the door for Beppe’s return. Not surprisingly, the team was bad, dropping all the way to 16th as match week 31 before steadying the ship to finish in 13th.
This was not a particularly fun version of the club. What is fun is playing a little Hey, Remember that Guy with the roster, though,
because that 2020-2021 team was packed full of random names. Let’s go back through the roster and see where all those guys are now. I’m only counting players who made a competitive appearance that season, although I’m making an exception for the backup goalkeepers. Anyways, let’s have a stroll down memory lane.
Bartłomiej Drągowski: It hasn’t gone as we’d hoped for Wojciech Szczęsny’s heir to the Poland job. We saw him in the Conference League last year with Panathinaikos and he’s still with the Greek outfit as the unquestioned starter (and even occasional captain), although his weird issue with tracking shots from distance has already reared its head in PAO’s first competitive game this year. Beard looks good, though.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/26071238/2205929511.jpg)
Photo by Foto Olimpik/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesFederico Brancolini: A promising teenager, he left Fiorentina in 2022 and has made just 1 competitive appearance since at Lecce and Empoli. He’s behind Jacopo Seghetti for the latter and doesn’t look like playing much this year, either.
Antonio Rosati: Your coolest uncle followed Vincenzo Italiano to Bologna last year and is working as a goalkeeping coach. More importantly, all reports are that he’s his irrepressibly delightful self.
Pietro Terracciano: At AC Milan as Mike Maignan’s backup after wrapping up a very solid half decade in Florence. In bocca al lupo.
Martín Cáceres: He’s turned out for Cagliari, Elche, LA Galaxy over the past few years before signing with Paraguay’s Libertad in February. He’s a backup and you have to think that his remarkable career’s winding down now that he’s 38, but he could end up playing another 5 years, too.
Federico Ceccherini: At the start of the 2020-2021 season, he had a really rough 3-game stretch and got exiled to Hellas Verona. He spent a year with Karagümrük’s weird Little Italy before Verona sent him to Cremonese in Serie B last year, where he helped the Grigiorossi attain promotion. Yep, that’s right, Fiorentina will face 33-year-old Cecche next year.
Igor: The Quad God had a rocky season at Brighton marred by a months-long hamstring issue. There’s been some noise about him leaving again (and Fiorentina gets 10% of any fee over €17 million for him) so he’s worth vaguely tracking, but my guess is he’ll give it another go on the southern coast of England.
Lucas Martínez Quarta: He’s back with River Plate and thriving as a regular starter and agent of pure, uncut chaos.
Nikola Milenković: Might have been the Premier League’s best bang-for-the-buck signing last year, although that was more to do with his handshake agreement with Fiorentina to let him leave after spending an extra year at the club. We’ll get to see him in a couple weeks for a friendly, which will be fun.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/26071240/2215213935.jpg)
Photo by Jon Hobley/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesGermán Pezzella: Now 34, the former Viola captain’s still a regular for River Plate. I like to think that sometimes, during games, he’s chatting with LMQ at the back about how much he misses lampredotto before he turns and realizes Lucas is 40 yards higher up the pitch for some reason.
Pol Lirola: After loans Elche and Frosinone (!), he’s still on the Marseille roster, although l’Om has been trying to offload him for a couple years now. Weirdly enough, he might be set for a return to Tuscany, with Pisa trying to buy him. Free Lirola indeed.
Kevin Malcuit: He was quite bad in his few appearances for Fiorentina and might be done as a player; he’s been without a team since 2023, when Ankaragücü turned him loose, although his Instagram shows that he’s still working out. And posting anime.
Lorenzo Venuti: He’s 30 years old, which is astonishing since I still think of him as that fresh-faced kid from the Primavera, but the reality is that he’s a veteran leader for Sampdoria who’ll be a key part of the Blucerchiati push for salvation and I wish him nothing but the best.
Antonio Barreca: His stint at Fiorentina was his final in the top flight, as he’s bounced to Lecce, Cagliari, Sampdoria, and Südtirol. The Weiß-Rote declined to keep him after a half-season, so he’s a free agent at the moment. One of the quietly weirdest careers remains quietly weird.
Cristiano Biraghi: At Torino after falling out with Raffaele Palladino last year. Weirdly enough, he was reportedly at odds with Prandelli in 2020-2021.
Maxi Olivera: This one’s got a happy ending, at least. Maxi spent some time in Mexico with Juárez but has finally returned to his beloved Peñarol and is wearing the armband. Who cares about results when you get the fairy tale ending?
Sofyan Amrabat: Fenerbahce just paid €12 million to make his move permanent.
Giacomo Bonaventura: Saudi Arabia didn’t suit him as he’s currently a free agent following a year with Al-Shabab. At 35, there should still be a market for him, although he may wind up in Serie B.
Gaetano Castrovilli: It’s all gone so wrong for him in just a few years. Lazio’s let him go and he’s now a free agent in what should be the midst of his prime at 28. Genoa and Pisa are reportedly interested so we could yet see him in Serie A but man, what a fall from grace.
Alfred Duncan: He’s still kicking around at Venezia but remains weirdly incapable of nailing down a major role. Maybe I’m just terrible at evaluating players but I’m convinced that, even at 32, he could do a job.
Erick: One of the highlights of the Club World Cup was seeing him as part of the ex-Viola brigade at Flamengo, although he’s linked to Boca Juniors. While rehabbing a toe broken against Bayern Munich, he’s expanded his collection of tattoos above the collar.
VEJA | Erick Pulgar fez três tatuagens.
— Flafocalizando (@Flafocalizando) July 29, 2025
5️⃣5️⃣5️⃣
YouTube: Erick pic.twitter.com/OWXQemhOpV
Borja Valero: He’s working as an occasional TV commentator as a sideline to his full-time jobs as Best Wife Guy in Italy and mayor of Florence, although he delegates some of the day-to-day power in the latter to Sara Funaro. I would kill for this man. I would die for this man.
José Callejón: After leaving Florence, he washed up in Granada, where he helped the Rojiblancos obtain promotion with 4 goals and 10 assists. He didn’t have the legs for la Liga, though, and dropped back down to the third tier with Marbella, where he enjoyed a spectacular swan song (10 goals, 11 assists) before retiring this summer. I can see him taking on a coaching role at some point but hopefully he enjoys the retirement he arguably started with the Viola.
Federico Chiesa: Yep, he played 3 games before forcing his way to Juventus. Still just 26, he doesn’t look like he has a future at Liverpool and could end up back in Italy. I’m pretty sure that his body’s already breaking down and he’ll never hit the old heights but he could still help someone achieve some big things.
Tofòl Montiel: Speaking of guys I misevaluated, here’s Tofòl. After leaving Fiorentina, he bounced around the lower leagues in Spain before winding up with Kecsemét in the Hungarian second division, spending most of the year on the bench and failing to earn a contract extension, so he’s a free agent.
Franck Ribery: After wrapping up his career in Salerno, he took a coaching job there and lasted until 2024. He’s not working at the moment, as far as I can tell, and is just hanging out.
¡Dos históricos en el #MundialDeClubes!
— FOX (@somos_FOX) July 5, 2025
Franck Ribéry y Arsène Wenger estás disfrutando del #PSG vs #Bayern y atendiendo a sus fans pic.twitter.com/EILv3ivbG7
Riccardo Saponara: He retired following a season with Ankaragücü (imagine the Turkish commentators dealing with him and Amrabat) and immediately took a job as an an assistant with Carrarese. It was wonderful to see him in the preseason friendly and also his arms looked big.
(33 ans) a pris sa retraite la semaine dernière. Il fait désormais partie du staff de la Carrarese (Serie B).
— Actualité - Serie A (@ActualiteSerieA) July 26, 2025
Hier, il retrouvait son ancien club, la Fiorentina, lors d’un match amical. pic.twitter.com/eoWoKwRUkP
Valentin Eysseric: Spent some time with Ceccherini at Karagümrük but joined second-tier Iğdır last year and helped them stay up with a team-high 9 assists. I guess he’s a Turkish league guy now.
Patrick Cutrone: It didn’t look good for him there for a couple years but he eventually made his way back to his hometown club and made it count, scoring 7 goals last year and spending about half his games wearing the armband. No word on if he still has Iachini’s hat but I choose to believe he does.
Cutrone, Iachini, su sempiterna gorra y un drama pic.twitter.com/PXNAmKMNKm
— Enrique Julián Gómez (@EnriqueJulian23) July 16, 2020
Aleksandr Kokorin: 11 goals and 9 assists for Aris Limassol last year would make for a nice redemption story of a walking meme. Or it would if he weren’t a violent felon and general dirtbag.
Christian Kouamé: Would you have guessed that he’s the only guy still on the roster 5 years later? I wouldn’t have.
Dušan Vlahović: Well, well, well.
More from violanation.com:
