OFFICIAL: Fiorentina signs Edimilson Fernandes

Edimilson Fernandes arrived in Florence on Sunday and underwent his medical today. Shortly after, Fiorentina announced that they had completed his loan from West Ham. From what we’ve heard, there’s a €1 million initial loan fee and another €8 million due at the end of the year if Corvino decides to keep him.

Fernandes is a 22-year-old Switzerland international with 3 caps under his belt. He was also in consideration for the World Cup side, although he missed out due to his trouble getting minutes with his club. He began his career with Sion, working his way through the academy and breaking into the first team as a 17-year-old before establishing himself as a starter in 2014. Two years later, the Hammers paid €6.4 million for his services, and he’s been in London ever since.

I want to think that he’s good, both because Fiorentina signed him and because he’s got the pedigree to be a very solid player, as he’s the cousin of no fewer than three professionals: Gelson Fernandes of Eintracht Frankfurt, Manuel Fernandes of Lokomotiv Moscow, and Cabral of Le Mont.

However, I am in no way an expert on West Ham or their players, so I’m going to hand it over to someone who is: Andrew Jones (follow him on Twitter for a bunch of good stuff), the Managing Editor of Brace the Hammer; with West Ham’s season starting tomorrow, you should have a look at them if you need an English team to follow this season. Take it away, Andrew.

Judging from the expert opinion there, it sounds like Fernandes is set to be the vice-Gerson: a midfielder with a bit more positional freedom than his colleagues whose job going forward is to provide some burst from deeper positions. We’ll be watching him very closely to see if he can consistently hit the heights we’ve seen in his highlight videos; if he can even come close, he’s going to be a solid signing.