The January transfer market window is officially over, but free agents are allowed to sign for a new team until March 31st. Graziano Pellè, who was pursued by multiple clubs, is headed to Parma, while Cagliari will make a run at Lasse Schone, Sky Sport reports.
The Ducali, which added Joshua Zirkzee from Bayern Munich, attempted to acquire Gianluca Scamacca as well, proposing a season-long loan with a €25M obligation to buy if they avoided relegation, but Sassuolo rejected the offer and the Italian forward will stay on loan at Genoa.
Therefore, the Gialloblù turned their attention to Pellè: the 36-year-old striker did not get the 18-month contract he was reportedly looking for, but had to settle for a six-month one with an option to prolong it. He already spent time in Parma, without much success, in 2011/2012 before he blossomed at Feyenoord and Southampton.
Cagliari will try to convince Schone to join and the president Tommaso Giulini is expected to fly to Netherlands to talk to the player directly. He rescinded his contract with Genoa few weeks back after being frozen out from the squad in October. The Sardinians are also expected to sign Kwadwo Asamoah, pending medicals.
Even though the deadline will come in a couple of months, most of the action related to free agents will go down in the upcoming days as the seasonal squad lists are generally full. Few internationally recognized players are currently without a contract, such as Diego Costa, Alex Teixeira, Ramires, Alexandre Pato, Ezequiel Garay, Ahmed Musa, Daniel Sturridge, Samir Nasir, Bojan Krkic, Martin Skrtel, Yohan Cabaye and Keisuke Honda. The options with Serie A ties are instead Ezequiel Schelotto, Emmanuel Badu, Richmond Boakye, Romulo, Dodo, Valter Birsa and Sandro.