On 8 January, 26-year-old Polish striker Piatek returned to Serie A on loan from Hertha Berlin to Fiorentina, wearing the Purple Lily's No. 19 shirt for a six-month loan period.
A few years ago, Piatek was in full swing in Serie A, and now that he is at the low point of his career, he returns to Serie A, naturally hoping to regain his form.
Piatek's start to Serie A was exceptionally smooth.
In the summer of 2018, the Polish striker came to Italy and joined Genoa for a transfer fee of 4.5 million euros. In the 2018-19 season, in his first seven appearances in Serie A, Piatek scored consecutive goals and was in amazing condition. After half-time, he has scored 13 goals in 19 appearances for Genoa in Serie A, and the celebration after the goal is also impressive.
In just half a season, Piatek's performance has shocked the Serie A field. In January 2019, AC Milan signed the in-form goalscorer from Genoa, at a time when Piatek's transfer fee had reached 35 million euros.
In the second half of the 2018-19 season, Piatek continued his previous fiery form, making 18 appearances for AC Milan in Serie A, scoring 9 goals. Throughout the 2018-19 season, he made 37 Serie A appearances, scoring 22 goals, ranking third in the serie A top scorer list, ahead of him by Quagliarella, who scored 26 goals, and Colombian striker Zapata, who scored 23 goals. Scoring 22 goals in his first season in Serie A, Piatek's report card is particularly eye-catching.
But in the following 2019-20 season, Piatek's form plummeted.
In the first half of the 2019-20 Serie A season, he made 18 appearances and scored only 4 goals, including 3 penalties, completely without the sharp edge of the previous season. In January 2020, Piatek left AC Milan to join Bundesliga side Hertha Berlin for a transfer fee of 24 million euros.
In this season and a half of Serie A, Piatek had a fantastic start, but in his second season in Serie A, his performance quickly fell flat. After leaving Serie A for the Bundesliga, the Polish striker failed to bounce back.
Since coming to Hertha Berlin, Piatek has scored 12 goals in 56 appearances in the Bundesliga, including only 1 goal in 9 appearances in the Bundesliga since the start of the 2021-22 season, and the Polish striker is currently at the trough of his career. In the 2018-19 season, when he was in good shape, Piatek was worth as much as 40 million euros; in the past two and a half years, as his form has declined, Piatek's value has been declining, and the Polish striker is currently worth only 10 million euros.
Fortunately, Piatek is only 26 years old, and anything is still possible. In football, there are many examples of peak status after going to a new team. Fiorentina striker Vlahovic is a good example, in the first two seasons of his first two seasons in Fiorentina, the young striker did not perform well, until the 2020-21 season ushered in the outbreak, the 2021-22 season has begun, the hot state is currently leading the Serie A top scorer list with 16 goals.
Joining Fiorentina on loan and returning to the familiar Serie A arena, it is up to Piatek to seize the opportunity to rebound strongly.