Nikola Maksimovic officially signs with Napoli after travel delays

It’s done! It almost didn’t get done, but it’s done! Nikola Maksimovic is a Napoli player, despite a day of delays and questions and fears. His €26 million transfer from Torino has been finalized and submitted to the league office, and Napoli have themselves a new defender.

The deal was thrown into chaos by this morning’s bomb scare in Frankfurt, as he was traveling from Serbia to take his medical. With his travel delayed by hours, Maksimovic had to skip his medical and go straight to signing his contract, which Napoli were able to get deposited in time to make the signing official.

Skipping the medical is a minor concern because we don’t really know what Maksimovic has been up to these past few weeks — he was in Serbia because he left Torino training to force a transfer. We don’t really know what kind of shape he’s in, so until we know more there will be lingering concerns about his fitness.

In the meantime, though, Napoli have signed an excellent player who will be a big part of the squad this season. That’s a thing to be celebrated, and glad about.