By Barry Pearl
The city of Florence is known for many things: the arts, architecture, beautiful scenery and, of course, the city’s football team ACF Fiorentina. The team is iconic worldwide because of their history and the color of the team shirt.
Known as Viola, Fiorentina wear purple and some of the players to have worn this famous shirt are icons themselves. Names like Rui Costa, Gabriel Batistuta and Giancarlo Antognoni are just a few players that have played a key part of the club’s history.
Despite such big names, the club have only won two Scudetto in their history. The first came during the 1955-56 season when they ran away with Serie A, recording 20 wins, 13 draws and just one defeat. The second title, the last one that the team has collected, came all the way back in 1968-69 when the Viola pipped Gigi Riva’s Cagliari to the top spot by four points.
Since then, the closest Fiorentina have come to a title was back in 1981-82 when they lost out to bitter rivals Juventus by just one point.
Fans have become impatient for success and there were protests earlier this season against the club owners due to a perceived lack of ambition.
However, there are some green shoots starting to appear from the Tuscan soil despite a season hit by the tragic death of club captain Davide Astori, a true professional who will be difficult to replace. The side went under some major personnel changes in the summer with last season’s top scorer Nikola Kalinic joining Milan, Federico Bernardeschi heading to Juventus and Matias Vecino joining Inter. They also saw Captain Borja Valero join Inter, and all these changes left the team needing a complete reconstruction.
Viola did react by bringing in Giovanni Simeone, son of Atletico Madrid manager Diego, from Genoa, and Marco Benassi and Victor Hugo from Torino and Palmeiras respectively. They also have Federico Chiesa, professed wonderkid and son of former Italian great Enrico Chiesa, starting to show his potential.
It is unlikely with such a young team that the Viola would be a favourite to challenge for a title in the Serie A betting but if they can hold on to their key players they may well have a chance to make a run at the top three over the next few years.
Current manager Stefano Pioli has a proven record at getting a side into the Champions League when he managed to get Lazio a third place finish in 2015. He may need time to turn his young roster into contenders especially considering that the club owners, the Della Valle family, do not like to spend beyond their means. This led to some of the ultras walking out of their loss to Verona earlier in the season.
Florence has been starved of a Scudetto for nearly fifty years and the tifosi will probably have to wait a bit longer before they see their beloved Viola bring home a title but they will be hoping that the summer will see the club retain their key players. If they can do that and add a proven goal scorer, then next season could see Fiorentina return to the elite of Italian football.