The year ended with news that many in Italian football were dreading. After a heated debate between ministers on Thursday, the… Decreto Crescita (growth decree) that granted tax benefits to foreign professionals was canceled.
Introduced in April 2019, the decree had a profound effect on Serie A, reducing the tax burden for teams signing players from abroad by as much as 50%. It made transfers possible that otherwise might never have happened. Football finance website calcioefinanza.it estimated that Roma and Milan are each saving more than €20 million annually on their wage costs, while Juventus, with €17.55 million, is not far behind.
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The changes will not apply retroactively, so there will be no impact on players already under contract. Still, Milan CEO Giorgio Furlani said the abrupt end of the decree would change his team’s plans for the January window. His Inter colleague Beppe Marotta called it an “own goal” for Italian football. Lazio president Claudio Lotito cited the presence of three Serie A teams in the European finals last season as evidence of how the decree had strengthened the domestic game.
Yet there is also another side to the coin. The Italian Football Federation released a statement welcoming the news, arguing that the decree had encouraged teams to buy from abroad rather than develop players locally. “Finally, Italian players and foreign players will be able to compete under the same conditions from January 1, 2024,” said president Umberto Calcagno.
If he wanted a supporting example of what can happen when you give homegrown kids a chance, he could have pointed to Fiorentina’s match against Torino on Friday. A cautious match was decided in the 83rd minute by a meeting between two young Italians, with 19-year-old Michael Kayode coaxing a cross for Luca Ranieri to head in and give the Viola a 1-0 victory.
Fiorentina 1-0 Torino, Napoli 0-0 Monza, Genoa 1-1 Internazionale, Lazio 3-1 Frosinone, Atalanta 1-0 Lecce, Cagliari 0-0 Empoli, Udinese 3-0 Bologna, Milan 1-0 Sassuolo, Verona 0 -1 Salernitana, Juventus 1-0 Rome
It was a victory that allowed Fiorentina to finish 2023 in the top four. It was a marathon year in which they played 64 matches as they reached the finals of the Coppa Italia and the Europa Conference League. It was crushing to lose both, but to come back with such a strong start to this season shows the kind of foundation the manager, Vincenzo Italiano, has laid.
Few could have imagined a year ago that Ranieri would become an integral part of Fiorentina’s project. Although he spent five years in the club’s academy, he spent the first four seasons of his professional career on loan, either at lower division clubs or battling relegation at the top level with Salernitana.
But Fiorentina’s qualification for the Europa Conference League last season created an opportunity. UEFA’s homegrown player rule reserves four of the 25 places in each team’s squad for those aged between 15 and 21 who have been trained by the club for at least three years. Ranieri lived up to expectations. No one knew exactly what his best position was, because he played as a left back and in midfield, but it was better to have an extra body than not.
The Conference League was Ranieri’s genesis. He started almost the entire knockout phase, including the final, as a centre-back. Italiano rotated his squad to keep his legs fresh during a long season, but towards the end of the season Ranieri also started to give chances in Serie A.
Nowadays Ranieri is a permanent name on the team sheet. “When you get such great stories, all the credit goes to the player, who arrived here with great humility and a spirit of sacrifice,” Italiano said on Sunday. “He knew at the start that he was behind, but with hard work, a serious attitude and goals he deserves his minutes and the confidence we have in him.”
Ranieri had already scored three times in the Europa Conference League this season, including the equalizer away to Ferencváros that put his team top of their group – avoiding an extra match in the round of 32. This was his first for Fiorentina in Serie A, further securing his position. his status as a fan favorite.
Local media speculated that Ranieri must have done enough to qualify for a call-up from Luciano Spalletti, the Italy manager. It’s perhaps a bit early for that, and Ranieri still sometimes looks like a player who doesn’t fit neatly into a box: too slim to dominate physical duels against stronger centre-forwards and most effective when left to read the game and jumping passes instead of sticking to a man.
On the other hand, Spalletti’s predecessors lamented the few options available to them for the national team. Centre-back is a relatively strong position for Italy – with Alessandro Bastoni and Giorgio Scalvini both emerging as exceptional talents – but, as Ranieri’s last year at Fiorentina shows, it never hurts to give yourself another option.
For now, the player is happy to have earned a place in a club that continues to defy gravity. Fiorentina lost one of their most influential players when Sofyan Amrabat joined Manchester United last summer, and have still not found an adequate replacement for Dusan Vlahovic since selling him in early 2022. Still, Italiano has helped them move forward.
Arthur Cabral and Luka Jovic were both sent off last summer after failing to score the goals they signed up for, but replacements Lucas Beltrán and M’Bala Nzola have fared no better. The team’s top scorers are Nico González and Giacomo Bonaventura, a left winger and number 10, but Ranieri and his centre-back, Lucas Martínez Quarta, are close behind with four goals each.
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That speaks to the collective ethos and pragmatic style that Italiano has embraced. He is an attacking coach by nature and Fiorentina have the second-highest possession percentage in Serie A, but if the attackers do not want to put the ball in the net, other methods must be found. Twelve of their goals this season – 24% of the total in all competitions – have been headers.
Sometimes that can also become predictable. Fiorentina played one of their most frustrating games of the season at home to rivals Juventus, when they had almost 70% of the ball and delivered 50 crosses into the penalty area, but lost 1-0 and never looked that close to scoring.
But how much can you ask from a team that is already exceeding expectations? Fiorentina were expected to run out of strength when González damaged his hamstring in December, but he has won three of three since.
More challenges lie ahead, with Riccardo Sottil picking up an injury against Torino and another winger, Jonathan Ikoné, heading to the Africa Cup of Nations. “We’ll see what news comes from the transfer market,” Italiano said. “We already had in mind to do something in that part of the field.”
Fiorentina, like every other club in Italy, will see its options reduced due to the expiration of the Growth Decree. They don’t have to look far for a reminder that this doesn’t have to be the disaster others predict.