Carlos Salcedo is doing just fine, yall

Switching clubs is always tricky. Switching leagues, countries, continents, languages, teammates, positions, and styles of play is even trickier. But Carlos Salcedo hasn’t let any of that bother him, and he’s settled in at Fiorentina a whole lot quicker than anyone (including us) predicted.

Salcedo’s had plenty of other things to worry about, though. Without delving too deeply into what’s become tabloid fodder in Mexico, the defender has cut ties with his sister (who dated Ronaldinho at one point), citing financial disagreements. He’s also cut off contact with his mother as well, claiming that she’s tried to destabilize his professional and personal relationships.

You have to wonder if it’s weighing on him, though. After bursting into the first XI several months ago, he’s regressed a bit, mostly due to the sort of simple mental mistakes you expect from a distracted man—poorly judged passes, lapses in positioning, that sort of thing. There’s no way to tell if the devolving family situation has dragged him down, but it’s not impossible that he’s dealing with so much off the pitch that it’s affecting his performance a bit.

Perhaps that’s why he’s recently expressed his eagerness to stay in Florence when his loan deal runs out at the end of the season. The option to buy him from Guadalajara stands at €7 million, which seems like a fair price for a 23-year-old full international centerback who’s occasionally looked world-class in his first half-season with a new team. While he admits that he doesn’t see himself spending his entire career in Florence, it probably seems far enough away from all his problems back home to look like a good, quiet place to spend a few years.