Pedro has completed his transfer from Roma to rivals Lazio, where he can reunite with his former Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri.
The 34-year-old was not part of Jose Mourinho’s plans and had not even been invited to pre-season training, so was on the market.
He made the switch across the city to Lazio practically for free, because financially this suits all parties involved.
Roma no longer have his €8m salary on their books, and he had arrived as a free agent from Chelsea only a year ago, while they also don’t need to pay the extra €3.5m taxes that would’ve been due if he had moved abroad and lost the Italian foreign influx tax breaks.
Lazio, meanwhile, are short on liquidity and can bring in an experienced player free of charge who already knows Sarri’s system.
Pedro had his medical this morning and was unveiled as a new Lazio player, wearing the Number 9 jersey, even though he plays wide right rather than as a centre-forward.
👀 Introducing our new number 9️⃣#CMonEagles 🦅 pic.twitter.com/xVUyxVqZvJ
— S.S.Lazio (@OfficialSSLazio) August 19, 2021
He looks sooo much better in blue💙! Mourinho will see to regret this either because someone on his role will underperform or get injured.