Generally you are right,a lot of people,especially on this forum identify player by the 'size of his name'.
But I think it's not that problem with sigining Stephan,he is simply old,he played over 10 years in Serie A which is much weaker then BPM,plus he played for Juventus who had a full monopol over that league last few years.If you ask me,we can buy a player who is absolute stranger but is younger and more capable to adapt to our squad.