Brighton sign Fiorentina defender Igor Julio for £15 million

Brighton have completed the signing of a left footed centre back who is not Levi Colwill, forking out £15 million to bring in Igor Julio from Fiorentina.

The 25-year-old Brazilian has signed a contract through to 2027 with the Albion and is an interesting signing in many ways.

Brighton fans who watched the Europa Conference final may have noticed it was Igor who lost the run of Jared Bowen far too easily as West Ham scored their 90th minute winner in Prague.

That was one of a series of mistakes which irritated Fiorentina fans through what proved to be a difficult last season with I Viola.

Consequently, Fiorentina fans seem nonplussed about Igor Julio joining Brighton. You would have got long odds on that being their reaction last summer.

Igor was hailed as one of the best players at Stadio Artemio Franchi during the 2021-22 campaign. He played 40 times as Fiorentina reached the semi finals of the Copa Italia and placed seventh in Serie A, their highest finish in six seasons.

If Roberto De Zerbi can coax that sort of form back out of Igor, then a fee of £15 million could prove quite the bargain.

There are other reasons why De Zerbi is a fan. Igor is comfortable in possession, not afraid to take risks and has a knack of twisting and turning his way out of tight spots.

He has the vision and passing range to spot a gap and slip a pass through the eye of a needle, normally to release a wide player. Already, you can see how he fits into DeZerbiBall.

Igor combines all that with the ability to step into midfield in possession, ala Adam Webster. Bowen would not have won the Europa Conference for West Ham had Igor not been high up the pitch at the time.

Fiorentina fans bemoan Igor for costing them extra time and penalties. De Zerbi no doubt is impressed with his unwavering commitment to an attacking philosophy even in the final minute of a cup final.

Before 2022-23, Igor rarely fouled and was subsequently rarely booked. He was similar to Colwill in that regard, the on-loan Chelsea defender picking up just a single yellow card from 22 appearances in all competitions last season.

That went out the window last season, when Igor became a card-earning machine. Mark that down as another area in which De Zerbi will be looking to get his new defender back on track.

It has been quite the journey to the Premier League for Igor. He began his career as part of the academy system of Red Bull Brasil.

Having shown enough promise in the Under 20s at RB Brasil, Igor was transferred to Red Bull Salzburg at the age of 18.

Igor played 36 times across the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons for RB Salzburg’s feeder team, Liefering. He was a teammate there of Enock Mwepu, another Albion player with Red Bull links.

Having done well for Liefering in the second tier, Igor moved on loan to Austrian Bundesliga club Wolfsberger in January 2018. He made 15 appearances and caught the eye of Austria Wien.

2018-19 was spent on loan in Vienna, where Igor played 30 matches. His loan odyssey around Austria came to an end in the summer of 2019, when Serie A outfit Societa Polisportiva Ars et Labor (try spelling that after three lunchtime pints) paid £3 million to take Igor to Italy.

Igor spent just six months at SPAL before Fiorentina came calling. He was initially signed on an 18 month loan as nothing more than backup defender.

Somehow though, Igor found himself playing at left wing back in the second half of the 2019-20 campaign. Fiorentina fans were intrigued by his combination of silky skills suited to a nippy winger and brute physicality.

One wonderfully poetic description of Igor from a I Viola website reads: “Watching strikers try to bump him off the ball is like watching a mosquito try to push a freight train around.”

2020-21 saw Igor switch to centre back, usurping all of Nikola Milenkovic, Lucas Martínez Quarta and Matija Nastasic in the pecking order to become the first name in the Fiorentina backline.

The loan was subsequently turned permanent for a fee of around £4 million in the summer of 2021. One very good season and one average campaign have followed, but the latter of those should not cause too much concern for Albion fans.

De Zerbi is a master at extracting the best out of his players; just ask Solly March, Adam Lallana or anyone else at the Amex whose performances and output were vastly improved by the Italian head coach.

Expect De Zerbi and Brighton to have the same impact on Igor Julio. And expect a player who brings talent and entertainment in abundance.