After nearly six months of long, tedious negotiations, highly rated Croatian youngster Ante Ćorić touched down in the Italian capital late this afternoon to complete his long-anticipated move to AS Roma. Ćorić, who has long been the jewel of Roma sporting director Ramon Monchi’s eye, will sign a five year contract with the Giallorossi.
Ćorić’s move to the Eternal City marks an end to his five season tenure at Dinamo Zagreb, where he blossomed in various midfield roles, after having made 143 appearances while having scored 23 goals and making 24 assists – an impressive tally. Despite the impressive overall numbers, though, Ćorić had a rather big slip up in form this season.
But now it begs the question: how does the youngster fit into this current Roma set-up? Ćorić has been primarily deployed as an attacking midfielder throughout his time in Europe but he will likely be asked to play more typical mezzala role in Di Francesco’s preferred 4-3-3 formation. The Giallorossi have long been lacking an attacking presence in their midfield ever since the departure of Miralem Pjanic in the summer of 2016.
Roma and Di Francesco will undoubtedly take a conservative approach with the young Croatian next season just as they did with Lorenzo Pellegrini this past season. While it’s unlikely Ćorić will be a first-choice player, he will certainly have a role to play for Roma due to the lack of depth the Giallorossi have, particularly in the midfield.
For a price of only €7 million, it appears Roma have made quite a coup in the transfer market, however, only time will tell if it’s an operation that works for all the parties.
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