Fabrizio Romanò reports that Fiorentina’s on the verge of signing Tottenham Hotspurs defender Radu Drǎgușin on loan with an obligation to buy next summer for a total of €20 million, as well as the player’s €5.1 million salary this year. Alasdair Gold believes the total fee is closer to €25 million and the purchase will be triggered by the Drǎgușin meeting certain performance objectives; Spurs will also get 10% of the next transfer fee for him. Nicolò Schira chimes in that the centerback’s contract
will run until 2031.
Fabio Paratici loves nothing more than raiding his previous club for talent so this comes as no surprise. There was reporting in late May that Drǎgușin was of interest to the Viola brass but the rumors died down over the past month. It makes sense for everyone, too, as the 24-year-old never found his feet in London, making just 48 appearances over 3 seasons since his €20 million move from Genoa in 2023 and being linked to the exit for quite some time, although an ACL injury in 2025 knocked him out for some of that span.
Despite his struggles for Spurs, Drǎgușin’s a good player. He has all the physical characteristics you’d want—size, strength, quickness—and he’s good on the ball. Despite his athleticism, he struggles in a high line as he doesn’t always see the whole pitch and is prone to losing forwards darting in behind, but that might have also been a structural issue with Ange Postecoglou’s paper-thin defense. Leaving the Premier League for the slower Serie A should suit him, especially since Fabio Grosso’s worked with stylistically similar players at Sassuolo.
Drǎgușin joins too many other centerbacks in Florence: Luca Ranieri, Marin Pongračić, Pietro Comuzzo, and new signing Viery will all expect to play significant minutes, minutes that aren’t available for a team not in Europe. Pongračić had some good moments at the World Cup and is almost certain to move this summer, leaving Paratici to sort out which of Ranieri and Comuzzo he wants to keep; expect to hear plenty more about this positional group in the coming weeks.
For now, though, we can be fairly excited about Drǎgușin despite his Juve connections. This is a fairly young defender with 30 caps for Romania, experience in Serie A and the Champions League, and the full package of talent. He’s pricey, sure, but this is a good gamble on a player the DS knows well. Centerback isn’t Fiorentina’s most desperate area of need but Paratici’s committed to tearing this thing down to the foundation and rebuilding it.
