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Life is moving fast for Kieron Bowie. In the space of six whirlwind months, the striker became the latest Scot to head for Italian shores by swapping Hibernian for Hellas Verona in January, before joining Sassuolo last week. Bowie has felt the dizzying highs of scoring against European titans Juventus at the Allianz Stadium and silencing the San Siro crowd with a goal against champions Inter, swiftly followed by the sickening lows of relegation and missing out on Scotland’s World Cup squad. However, a move to the Neroverdi, on loan with the option to buy, ensures he will have another crack at tormenting Serie A defences next season. “In just a few months in Italy he has shown his value,” said Sassuolo sporting director Francesco Palmieri. “He has important characteristics and is still quite young at 24. I’m convinced that he can contribute to this group and help us take steps forward.” Bowie will be in good company. His career path over the last half-year mirrors that of new team-mate and fellow Scot Josh Doig, who left Easter Road for Verona in 2022 before joining Sassuolo 18 months later. Two of the seven Serie A Scots will therefore pull on the same shirt for 2026/27 – such as Billy Gilmour and Scott McTominay at Napoli – so long as the transfer speculation around Doig, who lost his place in the second half of last season, comes to nothing. Sassuolo are coming off an impressive 11th-place finish, but Bowie joins during a period of significant change. The departure of general manager and CEO Giovanni Carnevali to Juventus this summer was a major blow after his key role in making Sassuolo a Serie A regular over 12 years in the role. That was no easy feat; although backed by wealthy owners in the Squinzi family, the club has modest roots. Sassuolo only reached the second tier of Italian football for the first time in 2008 and the top-flight in 2013. The town itself, not far from Modena and Bologna in Italy’s centre-north Emilia-Romagna region, has a population of around 40,000 and its ground is so small that Sassuolo instead play 30 kilometres away at the Mapei Stadium in Reggio Emilia. They are one of just five Serie A clubs, along with Juventus, Udinese, Atalanta and Frosinone, to own their own ground, but get modest home crowds and away followings of bigger clubs often outnumber the locals. That has not stopped Sassuolo from carving out a reputation as a talent factory; it was a springboard for Italy internationals like Manuel Locatelli, Giacomo Raspadori and Gianluca Scamacca, while this summer defender Tarik Muharemovic sealed a bumper £34 million move to Leeds. Carnevali was crucial to much of the impressive squad-building at the club, but his departure wasn’t the only significant one as coach Fabio Grosso moved to Fiorentina. His replacement, former Liverpool midfielder Alberto Aquilani, is seen as a rising star in Italian coaching after guiding unfancied Catanzaro to the Serie B play-off final last year. Bowie was Aquilani’s first major signing and is now expected to fight Andrea Pinamonti, scorer of nine league goals for them last season, for the starting shirt. “He’s a young and important player, with useful abilities that we are lacking right now,” Aquilani said. “He will definitely give us a hand.” Promising Juventus midfielder Vasilije Adzic became his next capture on Monday, while star man Armand Lauriente and club legend Domenico Berardi are still in place too, although key midfielder Ismael Kone faces a lengthy absence after he suffered a tournament-ending leg break for Canada during the World Cup. There is plenty of intrigue in Italy around Aquilani, and perhaps a sprinkling of giddy excitement too if Gazzetta dello Sport’s headline for a clip of a pre-season passing move is anything to go by: “Aquilani like Guardiola? Sassuolo’s move is from a video game.” Bowie will doubtless be hoping to be the grateful recipient at the end of some slick progressions during a season in which veteran team-mate Nemanja Matic has already publicly targeted Europe. “He was joking,” Aquilani smiled in response to the 38-year-old former Manchester United and Chelsea man. “It’s fine, ambition must be part of our way of thinking.” Time will tell how serious that ambition really is. But for Bowie, Aquilani’s Sassuolo should give him a major platform from which to continue his strong start to life in Serie A.