Recently, Fiorentina pleased itself with a new purchase – Serbian striker Luka Jovic, a direct competitor of Alexander Kokorin, moved from Real Madrid to Italy. Sasha already had few chances to play in the camp of the “violets”, and now they are striving for zero.

Colleagues from RB Sport reported that Kokorin did not go to the training camp with the team. Among the players who trained in the Italian Moena, the Russian was not seen, and the sources of the publication claim that the striker has already spent his last training session at the club.

Fashion for the removal of Russian athletes, you say. But no, the citizenship of a football player has absolutely nothing to do with it. It’s not even about the coronavirus, as it was said initially. The whole problem is in Kokorin himself. It’s no secret that Alexander did not pull the level of Serie A, the club has long been looking for loopholes to get rid of the odious striker. And here also Jovic complained.

Apparently, the crack (as Gennady Orlov would say) has finally been found. Are we waiting for Sasha in our native RPL?

Alexander Kokorin / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Giuseppe Maffia

The transfer to Italy is not just bad. This is a catastrophe

How Fiorentina could have screwed up with Kokorin like that is a mystery worse than a UFO. It seems to be a serious club that claims to European cups, but buys an unmotivated and traumatic player. Due to injuries, Alexander played only 10 matches in all tournaments for six months at Spartak. Did the Italians really hope that they would be able to put him on his feet and bring him back to his former level? It is quite possible, because their compatriots Fabio Capello and Roberto Mancini, who worked with the forward, sang great in their ears. They positively characterized Sasha, and the leadership of Fiorentina took their word for it.

But the miracle did not happen, in Italy the Russian showed himself from the worst side. Alexander has never played so little: 11 matches in all tournaments in a year and a half (an average of about 20 minutes per game), zero goals, zero assists. It’s not just bad, it’s a disaster. The market value of Kokorin in Spartak was about 4.5 million euros, now the forward is estimated at 800 thousand. There is a regression. Is his health really failing him, or did Alexander just score on football?

Match between Lokomotiv and Sochi / Photo: Vasily Ponomarev / Sportbox.ru

We are waiting for Alexander in the RPL?

If Alexander is no longer training at Fiorentina, then where to go next? The first thing that comes to mind is RPL. The last place where Kokorin looked good was Sochi, moving there looks organic. Moreover, the southerners recently sold top scorer Mateo Cassierra to Zenit, he needs a replacement. But there are two questions: will Alexander be able to find the proper motivation in himself and what salary will he require? Definitely, after the Italian voyage, he should moderate his appetite, but as for motivation, Sasha is as unpredictable as the euro exchange rate.

On the other hand, Kokorin may end up in Asian clubs. There are no bright prospects there, but there are good financial conditions, which is probably more important for Sasha at the moment. But if he suddenly decides to prove to all of us that the football player Kokorin was written off early, then welcome to Russia. We will only be happy if Alexander falls in love with football again and scores beautiful goals.