Reported West Ham United target Dusan Vlahovic became the first Fiorentina player in 56 years to score a Serie A hat-trick before half-time in Saturday’s 4-1 thrashing of Benevento, as reported by Football Italia.
In another difficult season for one of Italian football’s biggest underachievers, the 21-year-old Serbia international continues to shine through the darkness.
Vlahovic was at his ruthless best as Cesar Prandelli’s side calmed their relegation fears with a 4-1 victory away at struggling Benevento.
The former Partizan Belgrade starlet hammered home two predatory, left-footed finishes early on but there was even better to come; Vlahovic completed his 34-minute treble with a sublime, long-range lob from 25 yards just before the interval.
Not even the legendary Gabriel Batistuta found the time to score a first-half hat-trick in that famous purple shirt.
In fact, no one has done what Vlahovic did since the fabled Kurt Hamrin way back in 1964.
“I’m not surprised by Vlahovic because, at the age of 17, he had a different profile from any other striker. He has always shown that he has a great personality and at the end of training he stayed behind because he wanted to improve,” Carlos Freitas, a former Fiorentina striker, told Radio Sportiva (CM), comparing the youngster to a certain Erling Haaland
“He has an important future ahead of him.
“If he had chosen to go to Red Bull instead of Fiorentina, he would now have scored 30 goals and would have gone to the Bundesliga for crazy prices but luckily he immediately chose to compete in the competitive and prestigious league, unlike Haaland.”
According to Calciomercato, Vlahovic could join (or replace) the all-consuming Norwegian at Dortmund, with West Ham also among the striker’s admirers.
It remains to be seen how much Fiorentina will demand for a forward who, at the age of just 21, has scored more Serie A goals this season than Fabio Quagliarella, Andrea Belotti, Duvan Zapata and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
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