Official: Luigi Sepe joins Fiorentina on loan

It's official: after weeks of rumor, speculation, reports, and negotiating, Luigi Sepe has joined Fiorentina on loan.

The Napoli primavera goalkeeping product has spent the last several years away on loan, most recently with Empoli last season. Sepe, 24, took a huge stride forward in his development in his first Serie A sojurn, and Napoli wanted to give him a greater challenge with Fiorentina to further boost his development in goal.

Enter Fiorentina, where Sepe will now spend the next year. They were in need of another goalkeeper with Neto leaving and only the not-bad-but-not-good-either Ciprian Tatarusanu left in the building. Sepe can and should be able to beat out the Romanian fairly quickly to establish himself as Fiorentina's starting goalkeeper, setting himself up for plenty of exposure at the highest level yet of his career.

Sepe will be part of a side that will be in the European qualification fight in Serie A -- a fight shaping up to be quite close and entertaining one -- as well as Europa League matches for the first time in his career. It's going to be a tough test, so seeing how he handles it will be a major factor in how the rest of his hopefully-bright career goes. Good luck, Luigi.