One thing you have to give Fabio Paratici is that he keeps the wheels spinning. Various outlets reported yesterday that he was poised to swoop into Udine for star midfielder Arthur Atta and today, Fiorentina announced that yeah, the Frenchman’s signed on the dotted line and everything. For fans, it feels like this comes out of nowhere, especially because Atta’s been linked to a bunch of big (Premier League/Champions League) sides over the past months, and Udinese has priced him as such, per Nicolo
Schira: a €30 million transfer fee and a 30% sell-on clause. The player will get a 5-year contract paying him €1.5 million annually.
Atta’s an exciting player. As you’d expect from anyone at Udinese, he’s excellent physically: tall and quick and possessed of a wiry strength that allows him to hold off defenders. He’s also an excellent dribbler with a propensity for nutmegs. Despite his technical ability, I think he’s best as an off-ball guy who drifts into pockets of space in the final third to receive the ball, turn, and drive at goal, rather than someone who controls possession in deeper positions. He stacked up a career-best 5G/4A this year playing Udinese’s transition-based style and finished with high marks in all the metrics for creativity and chance creation.
Despite his languid appearance, he puts in the tough running, too. He presses well high up and is a pest due to his physicality but nobody will confuse him for a midfield destroyer. As happens with a midfielder whose game is built around finding creases in the defense, he’s also prone to vanish from games for long spells, particularly against opponents defending deep, but he’s got the quality to step up when it matters: he netted against both Milanese clubs and Lazio this year, for example.
Atta’s first generation French; his family’s originally from Benin but settled in Rennes, where he came through the system before moving to Metz at 16, working his way up the ranks and making his senior debut in 2022, helping les Grenats return to the top tier and establishing himself as a Ligue 1 player despite the club dropping right back down. That gave Udinese the necessary opening to get him on loan in 2024 and make the deal permanent for €8 million last summer.
€30 million is Fiorentina’s all-time transfer record (hi, Roberto Piccoli) so there’s definitely some risk here, even accounting for inflation. Atta seems like the sort of personality, though, who’s up for it. His on-field persona is all cool elegance and his family offers an extra sounding board as his father Éric is the head scout at Metz. Unlike Piccoli, he also won’t be occupying the same position as Fiorentina’s best player; in fact, a midfield trio of Atta, Nicolò Fagioli, and Cher Ndour could be quite interesting as they offer complementary profiles.
If nothing else, it shows that Paratici isn’t afraid to splash that Commisso cash; this will make it €55 million spent already in this window and there are still numerous holes in the squad that will require further expenditures. The DS seems to be focusing on creating a strong spine for his Fiorentina, adding two centerbacks and now another midfielder. I’m curious about how much more business the Viola can do without earning some more revenue—no European payouts, limited seating at the Franchi—but that’s something for the team’s accountants to worry about. As fans, we get to do the fun part, and that’s imagining just how good Atta could be on this team.
Welcome, Arthur, and best of luck. We’re excited.
