Fiorentina eye move for Lecce defender Napoli once scouted

Lecce have a player half of Serie A wants: Tiago Gabriel, the centre-back who had a strong season in giallorosso colours. Fiorentina are now watching him most closely, having just wrapped up a summer window built on heavy spending and already planning their next moves inside a project designed to run four years. For Fiorentina, though, a move for Tiago Gabriel is not yet concrete business — it depends on selling Pongracic, who joined from Lecce two seasons ago for €15m as Milenkovic's replacement before Milenkovic left for Nottingham Forest.

Napoli's summer window closed on 1 September with a net spend of around €47.5m and priorities fixed elsewhere: Lucca from Udinese, Badiashile from Chelsea, Gilmour from Brighton, with Gutiérrez's sale to Bayer Leverkusen balancing the books. An extra centre-back was never declared a necessity in that window, even though head coach Allegri's defence has not had an easy ride: Buongiorno is still out, Badiashile has played just 10 minutes this season, and Beukema has missed five league games with an Achilles tendon problem.

The winter window reopens on 2 January and closes on 2 February 2027 — a possibility, not an announced plan, for anyone minded to revisit a name Napoli already had under watch. For now it remains a Fiorentina dossier, tied to what happens with Pongracic.