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In a rather low-key announcement, Fiorentina have announced that midfielder Marco Berardi has been loaned to Serie C outfit Südtirol for the upcoming year, with an obligatory fee due next summer. The Viola will also receive a portion of any profits from future sales of the player.
The 21-year-old Berardi has been in the Gigliati system since 2013, working his way up the ranks and through loan moves to Pordenone and Tuttocuio to get to this point. He’s a do-everything central midfielder, a jack-of-all-trades-and-master-of-none who can fill the holding role, a more advanced spot as a runner or passer, and even put in a shift out wide. That versatility has served him well, but he was never going to earn a spot in Fiorentina’s plans this year, and Corvino seems to think that he’d reached the end of his development.
On the one hand, it’s a bit sad to lose a kid who’s been with the team for so long, but it’s also a good reminder that most of the Primavera players aren’t going to become long-term fixtures in the first XI of the senior side. For Berardi’s sake, though, we’re glad that he’ll get this chance to strike out on his own. We think he’ll wind up being a steady professional, but probably not much more.