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Fiorentina head coach Vincenzo Italiano hailed Dusan Vlahovic following his hat-trick in Sunday’s 3-0 Serie A win over Spezia.
Vlahovic became one of only two players born since 2000 to score two hat-tricks in the top five European leagues, alongside Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland, as Fiorentina eased past Spezia.
Serbia international Vlahovic, who is set to leave Florence after opting against signing a new deal, converted a 44th-minute penalty to open the scoring.
Vlahovic struck again in the 62nd and 74th minutes as the 21-year-old took his tally to 25 goals in 2021 – one of only two players to net at least 25 goals in a calendar year with Fiorentina, alongside Kurt Roland Hamrin (27 in 1960 and 25 in 1959).
25 – Dusan Vlahovic (25 goals in 2021) is one of only two players to have scored at least 25 Serie A goals in a single calendar year with Fiorentina, alongside Kurt Roland Hamrin (27 in 1960 and 25 in 1959). Astonishing.#FiorentinaSpezia #SerieA pic.twitter.com/Bk19f09KDe
— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo) October 31, 2021
“The goals are like fuel for the attacker’s engine,” Italiano told DAZN after Vlahovic improved his season haul to eight goals from 11 rounds. “When you create and don’t score, you lack a bit of self-esteem.
“When you score three, I can’t wait to see him on Tuesday to prepare for the next match. When the three up front do well, the team benefit from it.”
Vlahovic – linked with Manchester City, Atletico Madrid, Inter, Juventus, Arsenal and Tottenham – has netted 25 goals in 35 league matches this year, only Haaland (26) and Bayern Munich talisman Robert Lewandowski (36) have scored more in the big five European leagues in the calendar year.
Prior to Vlahovic, the last player able to score eight-plus goals in the first 11 Fiorentina’s matches in a single Serie A campaign was Giuseppe Rossi in 2013-14 (nine).
Vlahovic is also one of the only three players that have scored 100 per cent of penalties taken in Serie A since Opta collected this data (since 2005-06), with Romelu Lukaku and David Suazo (minimum 11 penalties taken).
“He holds me in great esteem, he always shows it to me and today he wanted to bow to me to thank me,” added Fiorentina team-mate Riccardo Saponara.
“Seeing him play like this does not surprise me, from the first day I saw great potential in him.”
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