Amrabat’s agent expects him to move this summer

Because Fiorentina’s on an incredible winning streak, we need something to wrench us back down into our usual misery. Fortunately, Sofyan Amrabat’s agent Mohamed Sinouh has provided us with just that. In an interview today, he told reporters that the Morocco international expects to move on during the summer window.

This isn’t the first we’ve heard about interest in Amrabat, of course, and Sinouh confirmed that Manchester United and Barcelona both made offers in January. Fiorentina rejected those offers on the grounds that the financial terms didn’t reflect the player’s celebrity after an incredible World Cup run.

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Sinouh, though, added that Fiorentina’s president (and it’s unclear if he means Rocco Commisso or Joe Barone) promised Amrabat that they’d sell him come summer. Barcelona and Manchester United will doubtless remain interested, while PSG and Atletico Madrid have also been mooted as potential buyers.

It’s certainly a blow for the Viola: Amrabat has been the team’s steadiest player all year, finally finding the form that convinced Commisso to shell out €20 million for him back in 2020. His ability to set the tempo for Fiorentina’s possession-based system, both with his passing and his dribbling, is important, but his wrecking ball impression in the center of the park is irreplaceable; very few players combine his mobility, tenacity, strength, and intelligence.

The real question is how much it will take to pry him out of Florence. At 26, Amrabat’s likely got at least another 5 years left of his peak, and given how hard he works to take care of his body, maybe more than that. Fiorentina has an option in the contract to keep him until 2025, so there’s not too much urgency on that front, but Sinouh’s comments have likely driven the price down significantly.

Expect a fee somewhere around €30 million, possibly more. It’ll be a solid plusvalenza, but finding a capable replacement will likely eat into a big chunk of that money, assuming that the club decides to spend it. It’ll also wrap up Amrabat’s bemusing Viola tenure, which started pretty poorly but came on like gangbusters towards the end. It’d be mighty nice to send him off with a trophy or two, but it sounds like we need to enjoy Sofyan for the next couple of months, because we won’t get to after that.