OFFICIAL: Fiorentina sign Nicolás González

After an absolutely wild couple of weeks, Fiorentina fans badly needed some good news. We’ve gotten it today with the news that the club’s move for Nicolás González, formerly of Stuttgart, for a fee of €27 million that could rise if the winger hits certain incentives. The new contract will run until 2026 and pay €2.7 million a year. The move has been expected for days, but was delayed due González’ commitments to Argentina’s Copa America campaign.

We’ve already discussed what to expect from González a bit, but we’ll rehash it here. He’s spent this year as a striker but has mostly played out wide previously. He scored 6 goals and assisted 2 more in 15 Bundesliga appearances, mostly on the strength of his incredible pace and dribbling. All in all, he seems a very complete attacker; the only knock on him is that he’s missed a fair amount of time with hamstring injuries in his young career.

It’s a real statement of intent for Fiorentina, who are working very hard to establish themselves as a serious contender in Serie A after half a decade in the wilderness. González (nicknamed el Bicho, or the Bug) is exactly the sort of player the club should shell out on: a 23-year-old Argentina international who’s already quite good and could improve substantially.

He should fit in brilliantly with Dušan Vlahović and Riccardo Sottil to create a dynamic front three that can rotate, play on the break, and generally wreak havoc on opposing defenses. He’s also not a Jorge Mendes client, which feels like a big deal right now. He feels very much like a Nicolás Burdisso signing, which is also a cause for optimism. No matter how much chaos there is around Fiorentina right now, we can all agree that this is a fantastic signing.