Report: Fiorentina make offer for Hellas defender Vuković

With Vitor Hugo likely to miss next week’s dead rubber at AC Milan, the Fiorentina backline is awfully thin. Germán Pezzella and Nikola Milenković are the only senior-team centerbacks remaining, with the next man up being 19-year-old Petko Hristov, who’s never played at a level higher than the Primavera. Clearly, the Viola need a central defender in the worst way. Enter Jagoš Vuković.

The 29-year-old Serb played for Hellas Verona this season, showing fairly well in 15 matches since coming over in January, with a goal (against the Viola, no less) and an assist to boot, although it wasn’t enough to keep Hellas from relegation. He’s a big, rugged player—6’5 and 195 lbs or 1.95 m and 88 kg—who’s rather slow on the hoof, but imposing in the penalty area. While he’s not the sort of signing to make the pulse race, he’d be a rock-solid fourth option behind Pezzella, Milenković, and Vitor Hugo. He’s also got 8 caps for Serbia and has been in the team for World Cup qualifying, although he looks unlikely to make the final roster for Russia.

The hitch here is his ownership situation. Greek powerhouse Olympiacos holds his registration but seems ready to sell, with Red Star Belgrade, Udinese, and Genoa all sniffing around. However, this Hellas site thinks that the Viola have already discussed a €2 million deal, citing a report from Greek rag SDNA. Getting a solid and experienced defender as a backup for so cheap would be a good thing. It’d also be fun to see a pairing of Milenković and Vuković, as they are both simply enormous.