Fiorentina agree to terms for Bartłomiej Drągowski

Jagiellonia Bialystok's 18 year old goalkeeper Bartłomiej Drągowski has been a favorite of Football Manager and FIFA fans for quite some time, due to the games rating him as having greater potential than any other goalkeeper in the world. Well, someone at Fiorentina must be an avid player of one or both of those titles, because outlets in both Italy and Poland report that the Viola have paid an unknown fee for the budding star, and that he'll join the team at Moena.

Standing 6'2/188 cm, the custodian made his Ekstraklasa on 27 May 2014, aged just 16. He's spent his entire career with Jaga (aside: the club's nickname is Baba Yaga, which is awesome), flying through their youth ranks before making his senior debut. While he only made the single appearance that year, he took over as the number one the following season, making 30 appearances and allowing 34 goals while keeping 10 clean sheets. This past season, he made 38 appearances, picked up 4 yellow cards, allowed 56 goals, and kept 10 clean sheets. He also picked out the number 69 for himself, so you know he's got that special brand of crazy that a good goalkeeper requires.

While he's risen through the youth ranks with Poland and is currently with the U21s, there's no pressure to rush him into the senior side, where Wojciech Szczęsny, Łukasz Fabiański, and old friend Artur Boruc have the job under control. Given Pantaleo Corvino's recently stated desire for Luca Lezzerini to take over as the Viola number two, it seems likely that either Drągowski is destined for a starter's role with Fiorentina (which would be quite a step up), or will spend a year or two out on loan to adjust to life in a new country. Where this leaves Ciprian Tătăruşanu remains a mystery, but the Viola could still look to sign a veteran starter to replace the Romanian international.