Lucas Torreira’s agent has confirmed that his client’s transfer to Fiorentina fell apart because they wouldn’t pay what they’d agreed.
Last weekend brought the surprising news that Fiorentina are not set to sign Lucas Torreira this summer, despite his pivotal role in helping them secure European football on loan this season.
Gianluca Di Marzio reported that Fiorentina wouldn’t activate their €15m option to sign the midfielder. Instead, he’ll return to Arsenal, at least for the time being.
Torreira’s agent has spoken to Fiorentina News to explain that the issue was that the Serie A side came to an agreement with Arsenal and with Torreira and then tried to renegotiate with both of them.
“The basic problem is that Lucas (Torreira) earned a higher salary at Arsenal than he took in Florence,” Bentancur said.
“When we agreed on the €1.5 million loan with Arsenal last summer, I got from the English club that Fiorentina would not pay that money if Lucas played at least 25 games (he reached 31 in the league).
“With this, we set the option-to-buy at €15 million, payable in 6 installments of €2.5m by 2025.
“We had agreed on a (player) contract with Fiorentina for the coming seasons of €2.7 million net a year. Fiorentina, however, now wanted to lower both [Torreira’s] salary and the cost of the transfer.
“We couldn’t accept, and Arsenal didn’t accept either. Now Lucas has a contract with the Gunners until June 30, 2023.”
This is a bit of a shock, given the success of Torreira’s loan spell. The midfielder made 35 appearances and won three Fiorentina Player of the Month awards in the last four months.
On the final day of the Serie A season, Torreira won a late penalty to help Fiorentina make it 2-0 against Juventus.
The win secured European football for Fiorentina for the first time in six years, and they’ll play in the Europa Conference League next season.
When you factor in the huge sale of Dusan Vlahovic and the prospect of European football, Fiorentina had no justification to haggle over a €15m signing on €2.7m wages.
But they did, and now they won’t get the player. There should be plenty of outside interest in an in-form 26-year-old coming off the back of a strong season.