Fiorentina’s best valuable player is Moise Kean. Sure, he was bad last year; injuries, club-wide incompetence, and basic regression slowed him down considerably at domestic level. He proved his quality by nearly dragging Azzurri to the World Cup, though, and emerged from that fiasco as the only Italy international whose reputation remained intact. As the highest earner on the Viola roster and its most saleable asset, his future was always precarious, especially since Fabio Paratici is obsessed with
removing every trace of Daniele Pradè from the RBCVPetc. If (if!) the DS sells Kean, he’ll need to bring in a replacement. There’s been no shortage of names mooted—Lorenzo Lucca, Santiago Castro, Tolu Arokodare—but the most recent belongs to Parma’s Mateo Pellegrino. Wait, what?
Pellegrino is a 24-year-old Spanish-born Argentine (his dad played for los Ches at the time) who moved from the Valencia academy to Inter Milan as a kid and spent 8 years there before moving back to Argentina and working his way through the ranks at Vélez before breaking through with loan moves to Estudiantes and Platense. Parma bought him for a discounted €2 million on deadline day of the winter mercato in 2025 and he’s been a regular at the Ennio Tardini since, scoring 15 goals in his 52 appearances.
There’s plenty to like about Pellegrino. The big thing is that, well, he’s big. He assisted Oliver Sørensen’s goal in against Fiorentina in Parma this year with a flicked header that the Dane tucked home. He’s got better technique and movement than you’d expect from a guy his size and can contribute to the buildup play but he’s every bit the classic prima punta, one who relishes the physical side of the game and can occupy opposing defenders to allow his wispier, more creative teammates a bit of breathing room. In short, he’s your basic target man with a little bit of extra sauce.
Parma’s reportedly demanding €30 million, which is pretty wild. Pellegrino’s a functional player with a proven record in Italy but he’s not exactly prolific: he scored 1o in the Clausura for Platense in 2024, 3 in the back half of 2024-2025 for the Ducali, and then 9 in 37 last year. Some of that is team context—Parma boasted the 3rd-lowest scoring attack in Serie A—but I can’t help but look at Pellegrino and see the prototype of a bomber di provincia, the sort of cult figure who bangs in goals for smaller sides but can’t quite take the step up. Think Andrea Caracciolo, Sergio Pelissier, Massimo Maccarone, and their ilk. €30 million is a whole lot of money for that genre of striker.
It’s also not enough money to replace Kean. He and Pellegrino are very different players and would change the parameters of Paratici’s hunt for wingers (sorry, Marco Brescianini). This is the sort of team-defining deal that needs to be done quickly to allow Fabio Grosso as much time as possible to plan for a completely different profile of center forward. Various sources report that a deal’s nearing completion, likely for an initial fee of €5 million and another €25 million, although the sides are quibbling about whether that will be an option or an obligation.
Despite La Nazione’s claims (via LaViola) that Pellegrino would replace Roberto Piccoli as Kean’s backup, that’s an unlikely outcome. Piccoli could be a makeweight to lower the cost of the deal if Parma’s interested in him (and he’d likely be a perfect replacement) but spending €30 million on a backup striker for the second year running would be madness even for Giuseppe Commisso and Paratici’s free-spending Fiorentina.
