Yacine Adli Finding a New Lease on Life at Fiorentina
From Mike Maignan to Mattèo Guendouzi to Adrien Rabiot, we’ve seen quite a few players go from developing in Paris Saint-Germain’s academy to excelling in the Italian top-flight, and the latest player to make the jump and excel in Serie A is Yacine Adli.
Born in the Parisian suburb of Vitry-sur-Seine to Algerian parents, Adli joined PSG’s academy in 2013 and quickly made his way through the youth ranks for club and country, representing France at the U16, U17, U18, U19 and U-20 level and even playing for them in the U-17 Euros and U-17 World Cup in 2017. He made his professional debut on May 19, 2018 in the final match of the Ligue 1 season, replacing Christopher Nkunku for the final minutes of a 0-0 draw at Caen.
Six weeks later, Adli signed his first professional contract with PSG. However, he wasn’t able to make a second appearance for Les Parisiens, with Thomas Tuchel preferring more experienced figures like Marco Verratti and Leandro Paredes. On January 31, 2019, Adli left his boyhood club and joined Girondins de Bordeaux on a 4.5-year contract, with Bordeaux paying €5.5 million and giving him a 40% sell-on clause.
Adli was able to make a name for himself in France’s top-flight with Bordeaux, racking up 6 goals and 16 assists across 104 appearances — including a goal at PSG — and prompting the attention of various top European sides. On August 31, 2021, AC Milan signed him on a five-year contract and paid a total of €8 million for the transfer, before loaning him back to Bordeaux for the 2021/22 campaign.
At first, Adli found playing time hard to come by under the newly crowned Italian champions. He made just six appearances throughout the entire campaign, all of which were late cameos in the final minutes of matches. However, despite struggling for playing time, Adli elected to remain put in Lombardy, a decision that would soon bear fruit. Despite missing the first five matches of the campaign due to injury, Adli quickly emerged as a key squad player for the Rossoneri.
Stefano Pioli elected to switch from a 4-2-3-1, which helped them win the Scudetto, to a 4-3-3 formation, a decision that would allow Adli to be deployed deeper in midfield and get a new lease on life in the center of the pitch. Initially a backup to Rade Krunić, Adli took his place in the starting XI after the Bosnian joined Fenerbahçe in the January window. He excelled as the holding midfielder in front of the defense, racking up 1 goal and 2 assists in 33 appearances for the Rossoneri.
The summer of 2024 would see Pioli part ways with the club, with Portuguese coach Paulo Fonseca taking charge for his second managerial stint in Italy. What’s more, with Youssouf Fofana joining from AS Monaco for €20 million, and with Fonseca preferring a 4-2-3-1 formation, the writing was on the wall for Adli. He decided to leave for Tuscany, joining Fiorentina on a season-long loan for a fee of €2m, with Fiorentina retaining an option to buy for €10m.
After gradually biding his time and adjusting to the new system, Adli has quickly emerged as the star man in midfield under new manager Raffaele Palladino. He’s proven vital in Fiorentina’s turnaround in form and a key figure in La Viola’s aesthetically pleasing, swashbuckling style of football. As fate would have it, Milan’s trash has ended up being Fiorentina’s treasure.
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Fiorentina started slowly with zero wins in their first six matches, only barely defeating Hungarian side Puskás Akadémia on penalties to book their spot in the UEFA Europa Conference League, before edging Lazio 2-1, drawing 0-0 at Empoli, and beating Welsh side The New Saints. However, it wasn’t until their match against Milan on October 6 that Fiorentina started to turn the corner.
Palladino started the campaign with a 3-4-2-1 formation, which brought him unprecedented success during his time at Monza, but he ripped it up and changed his tactical shape to a 4-2-3-1 for the match against Milan. Adli would open the scoring in the first half, and whilst Christian Pulisic levelled proceedings at the hour-mark, Albert Guðmundsson’s 73rd-minute goal would see them come away with a victory.
From that point on, Fiorentina have been able to hit their stride under Palladino, scoring 15 goals in their next three matches vs. Lecce, St. Gallen and Roma and edging Genoa and Torino by a 1-0 margin. Their seven-match winning streak came to an end on November 7 in a 2-1 defeat to APOEL, but Fiorentina would bounce back by stringing together three wins on the bounce vs. Hellas Verona, Como and Pafos, before being knocked out of the Coppa Italia on penalties by Empoli. La Viola were able to respond in style, edging Cagliari 1-0 and demolishing LASK 7-0, before succumbing to a 1-0 defeat at Bologna, a 1-1 draw at Vitória, and a 2-1 loss vs. Udinese.
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Adli has been deployed as one of the double pivots alongside either Roma loanee Edoardo Bove, who has not played since suffering a cardiac arrest vs. Inter on December 1, or Lazio loanee Danilo Cataldi. He has racked up 3 goals and 3 assists in 18 appearances for Fiorentina, who sit fifth in the Serie A table and third in the Europa Conference League table. Having impressed as an attacking midfielder in France, Adli has been able to flourish in a deep-lying role in Tuscany.
The French youth international has been able to cement his spot as one of the first names on Fiorentina’s team sheet, proving indispensable both on and off the ball. Only Lucas Beltrán (4) has racked up more assists in Serie A amongst Fiorentina’s squad than Adli (3), only Dodô has provided more Expected Assists (1.81) than Adli (0.98), and only Moise Kean (11) and Beltrán (6) have provided more goal contributions than Adli (5).
Adli also sits joint-top of Fiorentina’s roster with 1.1 key passes per game, whilst only Luca Ranieri (3.7) is providing more accurate long balls per 90 than Adli (3.1), and no player has created more big chances (5) than him. In terms of the Europa Conference League, only Christian Kouamé (2.3) is providing more key passes per game than him (2.2).
As long as he keeps performing like this, it will only be a matter of when, not if, Fiorentina make Yacine Adli’s transfer permanent. At 24 years of age, Adli is finally excelling on a regular basis in Italy’s top division, and it may only be a matter of time before he makes his senior debut at the international level. Whether that will be for France or Algeria, only time will tell.
By: Scot Munroe / @scot_munroe
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Agence Nice Presse / Icon Sport