Busio to Fiorentina Rumors Continue to Circulate

The lack of soccer on the field over the last few weeks hasn’t stopped rumors from continuing to crop up in the soccer world. The interest from Italy in Sporting Kansas City homegrown player Gianluca Busio has continued. Back in November there were reports that Fiorentina had made two offers to Kansas City for Busio, with neither being accepted obviously. Now Fiorentina is reportedly back and interested in Busio again. La Nazione out of Florence (where Fiorentina is based) is reporting that there is new interest in the US youth international.

The report out of La Nazione says that Fiorentina could try to get him soon as his contract expires at the end of 2020. That though is not entirely accurate. When Busio signed with KC in August of 2017 he signed through 2020 with club option years for 2021 and 2022. While foreign clubs have challenged the validity of the option years in MLS contracts (most famously with Camilo and Queretaro), he’s not technically out of contract with Kansas City at the end of the season.

In Busio’s case he has previously stated an interest in playing in Europe and his having an Italian passport makes it easier for him to head to Europe.

This will be a test to see what Kansas City has learned from the situation with Erik Palmer-Brown who left on a free when his contract expired after the 2017 season. Back in November Kansas City reportedly had put a $10 million price tag on Busio for them to sell the 17 year old while the reported offers were between $3-4 million. The latest rumors last week reported that the cost would be just over $4 million US. It seems unlikely that if the $10 million figure was correct that KC would drop down to just above what they were reportedly offered in November. Even if KC isn’t actually expecting $10 million and is just using that number as a starting point for negotiations, dropping to just over $4 million doesn’t make sense for the club.