Nikola Maksimovic has left Torino to join Napoli on a season-long loan that will become permanent next summer.
Torino confirmed in a statement on their website that the transfer had gone through just before the transfer deadline in Italy, despite complications that saw the player stuck in Frankfurt on Wednesday and unable to travel to a planned medical in Rome.
The closure of Frankfurt airport due to a security scare seemed set to thwart the deal, with the player left stranded in Germany, but an agreement was nevertheless reached between the two clubs without the player undergoing a medical and the paperwork was filled in and submitted just prior to the deadline.
Un benvenuto anche a Maksimovic, un'altra pedina giovane e di talento per il nostro Napoli #ADL
- AurelioDeLaurentiis (@ADeLaurentiis) August 31, 2016
"Welcome also to Maksimovic, another young and talented component for our Napoli," club president Aurelio De Laurentiis wrote on Twitter.
Maksimovic had been frozen out by Torino coach Sinisa Mihajlovic after the Serbian defender refused to train earlier in preseason.
He had also been linked with a move to Chelsea, but Napoli have won the race to sign him, inserting the permanent transfer of Mirko Valdifiori to Torino as part of the deal.