Aston Villa sold Jordan Veretout to Fiorentina this summer and he is already making waves in Serie A.
Paul Pogba and Geoffrey Kondogbia have both gone onto great things since winning the Under 20 World Cup with France in the summer of 2013.
Pogba became the world’s most expensive footballer when returning to Manchester United from Juventus last year while Kondogbia was made Inter Milan’s record signing in the same summer. The third of France’s talented midfield triumvirate, however, is only now starting to show signs of fulfilling his potential.
It’s fair to say Jordan Veretout did not enjoy his debut season at Aston Villa in 2015/16, the Midlands giants finishing bottom of the Premier League after a truly abysmal campaign that saw them win just three of 38 games.
The 24-year-old, who arrived from Ligue 1 club Nantes for £8 million (BBC), started just 21 games as he struggled to adapt to life at the bottom of the English top tier. And, despite a promising loan spell at St Etienne last season, it was no surprise when Veretout left Villa for Fiorentina for a fee of £6.25 million in July (Birmingham Mail).
Villa fans might have scoffed when Fiorentina Giancarlo Antognini described him as the ‘complete, modern midfielder’, as reported by Tuttomercatoweb, but it is immediately clear what the Serie A club saw in the talented Frenchman.
In just his third appearance for La Viola, Veretout produced an astounding, 30-yard free-kick to cap a Man of the Match performance in a 5-0 thrashing of Hellas Verona.
It was a goal Federico Bernardeschi, the former Fiorentina favourite who joined Juventus this summer and has been likened to Roberto Di Baggio, would have been proud of.
There is no doubting Veretout’s talent and, with Villa struggling at the wrong end of the Championship, his sublime performance at the highest echelons of Serie A just rubs salt into the wounds.
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