Fabio Paratici’s busy summer continues with Fiorentina’s 7th incoming transfer of the season (9th if you count the loan redemptions for Marco Brescianini and Giovanni Fabbian). The DS has gone back to familiar territory again and grabbed rightback João Mário on loan from Juventus. According to LaViola.it, it’s a €1.8 million initial fee and a €9.5 million option.
I wasn’t particularly high on this move when the rumor broke
a couple weeks ago and I’m no higher now. João Mário Neto Lopes is 26 and has 3 caps for Portugal but I don’t see him as anything more than a depth piece. He’s got the requisite pace and technical ability to look very good in a YouTube compilation, sure, but his disastrous defending means that he struggles to make a positive impact over 90 minutes.
A Porto product, João Mário moved to the Juvenuts last year for €12 million but suffered a Mattia Vitiesque trajectory: unable to get on the pitch for either Igor Tudor or Luciano Spalletti, he was loaned to Bologna in January but failed to elbow past Nadir Zortea for minutes under Vincenzo Italiano and the Oscar Mayers declined his option. I can’t imagine he’ll shoulder past (sigh) Alex Jimenez in Florence. His arrival also sounds the death knell on Dodô’s time with the club.
That’s enough negativity for now. João Mário should be Perfectly Fine as a low-cost backup. If he pops, another €9.5 million won’t feel onerous at all. After all, this is a guy in his athletic prime with plenty of Champions League experience. The worst-case scenario is that he rides the bench for a season and then returns to Turin. My fervent hope, however, is that he bursts into the team and starts all 38 Serie A games, wowing everyone with his two-way play and cementing himself in Fabio Grosso’s XI because that would mean noted creep Jimenez wouldn’t be playing for this team.
Hey, all of a sudden I’m a huge João Mário fan. Bem-vindo e boa sorte!
