Italian journalist Stefano Cecchi believes that Russian Fiorentina forward Alexander Kokorin made the right decision when he moved to the club, despite the fact that the transfer was a complete failure for the team.

Whatever happens, it will be a success for him. Either that he will remain in the ranks of Fiorentina to earn another 3 million 600 thousand euros until June 2024, or that he will leave in exchange for a millionth severance pay, for Alexander Kokorin the choice to come to Florence will be a resounding success. A kind of entry into Wonderland, where you can celebrate your birthday every day without even worrying about fighting on the football field. Yeah, Kokorin, who is also called “Justin Bieber” for his resemblance to the Canadian singer. In today’s twisted world of football, stories like this are uplifting. They tell not only how often money is wasted, but also that if talent is not accompanied by discipline, the risk of getting lost is not far off.

He happened to become the best football player in Russia at the 2014 World Cup, win the Russian Cup, the Super Cup and the Russian Championship with Zenit from St. Petersburg. The trouble is that there were too many crooked stories in Kokorin’s career to clog his head and undermine his talent. For example, when, celebrating the wedding of a friend in Ossetia, he himself filmed the firing of guns into the air. Or when he spent the night after Russia’s elimination from the European Championships spending 250,000 euros on champagne at a club in Monaco.

This time, Flavio Briatore acquitted him, saying that the player did not drink at his club. Then he broke up when he first attacked a taxi driver, and then an official in a Moscow restaurant and sent them both to the hospital, no one could then save him from a sentence of a year and six months in prison. The football player has greatly lost his condition. However, Fiorentina in January 2021 still wanted to buy him, providing him with a salary as an absolute champion.

True, the statements of some well-known coaches who worked with him were also misleading. “He is a champion who could also play for Real Madrid,” said Roberto Mancini. And Fabio Capello: “He has amazing technical qualities.” At the same time, the words of the former Russian football star Alexander Mostovoy in the same days went unnoticed: “Kokorin is arrogant, not inclined to train seriously. I doubt that he will be able to perform well at Fiorentina.

Unfortunately, he was right. For heaven’s sake, this is not the first time that a mistake in the market has come at a high price. Nobody wanted to leave Florence without taking all the money due: why should Kokorin do this? asks Stefano Cecchi, quoted by La Nazione.

Earlier it was reported that Fiorentina may not include Alexander Kokorin in the application for the new season.

Kokorin moved to Fiorentina in 2021 from Spartak. For a season and a half in a club from Florence, the Russian striker spent 216 minutes on the field, without scoring goals. His contract with the Florentines runs until June 30, 2024.