With Vlahović gone, Arthur Cabral seems to be his replacement

With Dušan Vlahović’s €75 million move to Juventus all but done, Fiorentina have already found his replacement. Meet Arthur Cabral, a 23-year-old Brazilian striker currently playing for FC Basel in Switzerland. Many reports have Cabral on the brink of a move for €16 million to Firenze.

Cabral began his career with Ceara in Brazil, before moving to Palmeiras in 2019. He wasn’t able to get a game there under Luiz Felipe Scolari, so a loan move to Basel in the summer of 2019 followed. He took the Swiss League by storm, scoring 14 goals in 26 games in his first season. A permanent move followed, for a Swiss-League record fee of €6 million. If he felt any pressure from the fee he didn’t show it, as he’s only gotten better since. Last season he scored 22 goals in 45 appearances, and this year he’s already scored 27 times in 31 matches.

We’ll be getting an expert's opinion on Cabral soon, but from my brief scouting, it’s clear that Daniele Pradè and co. were searching for a like-for-like replacement for Vlahović with Cabral’s signing. Like Vlahović, he is an all-around striker. He moves well for his big size and build, but his strong suit is his deadly finishing. He also is able to contribute to link-up play, hold up the ball, or run in behind on goal.

The big question is whether he can translate this skillset up to the level of Serie A, and for that, we’ll have to wait and see. Any chance of Fiorentina still qualifying for Europe rests on this man’s ability to make an immediate impact, so here’s hoping he can settle in quickly and start scoring goals.

UPDATE:

Cabral is now in Florence and had dinner with Joe Barone, Nicolas Burdisso, and Daniele Pradè. There’s even a picture of all of them eating dinner together, with Pradè on the phone in the background....