Ex-Barca midfielder Arthur Melo's unstoppable rebirth at Fiorentina

Arthur Melo is smiling again on the pitch. His misfortunes seem to be over. After two years of injuries and sitting on the bench at Juventus and Liverpool after leaving Barça, the 27-year-old Brazilian midfielder is now a permanent fixture in Vincenzo Italiano's team as a defensive midfielder at Fiorentina.

His renaissance has come playing in the position that made him known on the international scene with Gremio and which made FC Barcelona take notice of him. At Fiorentina he arrived with the mission of replacing one of the sensations of the last World Cup, the Moroccan Sofyan Amrabat, and he is succeeding with flying colours.

Arthur Melo is constantly winning praise from his teammates and the Italian press, to such an extent that Corriere dello Sport dedicated a front page to him, calling him 'King Arthur'. His resurgence is unstoppable. Last month his team-mates already showered him with praise. And Arthur feels comfortable. "I'm at my best physically and mentally, I feel like I've never felt before".

Arthur, who is on loan at 'Fiore' from Juventus, has taken part in eight Serie A matches (522 minutes) and in six of them he has been a starter and has played almost all the minutes, giving an assist and with the only asterisk of receiving a yellow card.

In the Conference League he has featured in both matches, in the first one against KRC Genk he played all 90 minutes and against Ferencvaros he came on in the 57th minute of the match.

As a defensive midfielder, he has a pass success rate of 93% (345 successful to 25 unsuccessful). He also wins almost 60% of the duels and 78% of tackles.