Roma Retains Radja Nainggolan for a Reported €20m

I'm sitting here writing a diatribe against the very notion that anyone connected with Roma would think it's a good idea to sign Kevin Prince Boateng, then BAM!, the internet starts to leak the news that Roma and Cagliari have finally settled their co-ownership of Radja Nainggolan. Not settled in the here's the pdf fashion, but more along the lines of we'll still hear different amounts for the rest of the week, but we can rest easy sort of way.

Football Italia via Sportmediaset reports that the two clubs have settled on a €20m fee for the remaining 50% of Nainggolan's contractual rights—told ya the last vestiges of co-ownership would sting. At this point, we have no idea if this is €20m for Nainggolan only, or €16.5m for Nainggolan and €3.5m for Davide Astori, but this much is clear, Cagliari made a killing off this deal and get Roma's young Colombian attacker, Carlos Carbonero, as a kicker in the deal.

We'll feed you the updates as they come out, but at this point, yes, you can probably pin a few million of those Euros on Walter Sabatini dragging his feet on this deal, but what else could they possibly do at this point? Nainggolan is simply too important to this squad to let him slip away, particularly to Juventus or anyone else in Italy.

All told, between the initial loan, the purchase of the first 50% of his contractual rights, and now the reported seizure of the remaining 50%, Roma have invested nearly €30m in Radja Nainggolan. That's an awful lot of money for a club like Roma to spend on anyone, let alone someone who wasn't initially thought of as a first team player, but it is testament to how much growth Nainggolan has exhibited over the past year and a half; he really is one of the more unique talents in the game and has as good a chance as anyone to live up to that price tag. If nothing else, his role with the club should grow exponentially.

Updates as they come. Now, back to that KP Boateng piece...