The agent of new Fiorentina striker Christian Kouame admits a move to Crystal Palace was close in the past.

Michelangelo Minieri now expects Kouame to remain with the Viola long-term as he arrives from Genoa.

He told Sky Italia: "Fiorentina has invested in a prospective and talented boy, it has been following him for some time and the injury has been only an accident on the way.

"He was very close to the Crystal Palace, then he got hurt...

"Probably, as Kouame himself told me, it was destiny that things should go like this."