Inter Milan and Roma are set to make moves for Chelsea winger Mohamed Salah after the player's solicitor said he is not going to stay with Fiorentina.
Salah joined the Italian side on loan from Chelsea in January, initially until the end of the season but with a pre-agreed option to extend that by a full season upon the payment of a further fee to the Premier League club.
Fiorentina now expect Salah to join them for preseason training, but the player's solicitor Ramy Abbas says that is not now going to happen. The player has other suitors in Serie A and while he can be expected to be playing in Italy again next season, it will not be with Fiorentina.
"We have decided, he's not staying at Fiorentina," Abbas is quoted as saying in La Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday. "Salah is going to move to another Italian club."
Fiorentina had offered the 23-year-old improved terms to stay with them next season and his refusal has prompted them to begin legal action.
They claim that the agreement reached with the player in February obliges him to stay with them until 2016, even without the amendment to his wages.
Abbas provided documentation, published by La Gazzetta, which illustrates how Salah had a different agreement with the Italian club. Irrespective of their or Chelsea's wishes, it reveals that he could refuse to extend his stay until 2016 by exercising this right prior to the end of June.
That date has now passed, however, and Fiorentina have therefore sent a letter to Salah reminding him of his obligation to join them for preseason training on July 13.
Inter and Roma are monitoring the situation closely with both clubs understood to be keen on a player who scored six goals in 16 Serie A appearances last season.