Diego Simeone and Atletico Madrid continue to conduct good transfer business as it is being widely reported that the La Liga champions have signed Torino winger Alessio Cerci for £16 million. The Italian was left out of the squad for today’s match against Inter Milan and speculation is the player will have a medical in Spain early Monday morning.
The Spanish champions have reportedly outbid Arsenal, AS Monaco and both Milan clubs for the Italy international’s services.
According to reports earlier this week, Atletico would need to offload some players before the club could add wages to their squad. But it appears the club have plans in the works to address that issue.
Cerci, who just turned 27, started his professional career with AS Roma and was under contract with the Serie A club for eight years. He spent a handful of seasons on loan in Italy before finalizing a move to Fiorentina in August 2010.
He spent two seasons with the Viola, while making 47 appearances and scoring 21 goals. The winger then transferred to Torino in August 2012 to reunite with Giampiero Ventura, who had previously coached Cerci while he was on loan with Serie B side, Pisa Calcio.
Since that time, Cerci has made 72 appearances while scoring 21 times for il Toro; with last season’s 13 league goals and 37 appearances being his best season in Italian football.
The 27-year-old also spent time at every level of Italy’s national team before being called up to the senior squad in March 2013.
He was a member of Italy’s World Cup squad which crashed out in the group stages of this summer’s tournament in Brazil. Cerci came on as a substitute during the Azzurri‘s 1-0 Group D defeat to Costa Rica.
The Spanish champions and Champions League finalists continue to do great business following the departures of Diego Costa, Filipe Luis and Thibaut Courtois to Chelsea earlier this summer.
Once the deal for Cerci is finalized, the Italian will join fellow signees: Antoine Griezmann, Mario Mandzukic and Raul Jimenez in Diego Simeone’s new look attack.
Add those newly signed players to Atletico’s returning title-winning “spine” made up of Miranda, Diego Godin, Gabi, Koke, Mario Suarez, Tiago and Arda Turan; and the La Liga club looks ready to challenge for more silverware this season.
Upon their return from the international break, Atletico Madrid are scheduled to square-off with rivals Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu on September 13th.
