The Fate of Antonio Cassano

If he were an opera star, he would be il divo.  If he were an Amer­i­can sports star, he would be called a prima dona (yes, Amer­i­cans don’t speak other lan­guages well) and be com­pared to Ter­rell Owens or var­i­ous NBA fig­ures.  If he was a politi­cian, he would rise to stratos­pheric heights only to quickly fall to the ground.  In brief, il Tal­entino di Bari is a great cal­cio tal­ent, but a head case and a pain for his man­agers.  The story of his tem­per is, to put it politely, .

And once again, his per­son­al­ity has reared its ugly head.

This week Ital­ian national team man­ager Mar­cello Lippi refused to call up Cas­sano for two friendly matches against the Nether­lands and Swe­den.  Cassano’s stat line for inter­na­tional matches is not excit­ing, hav­ing not scored a goal since 2004.  How­ever, he has done well for Sam­p­do­ria so far this year, notch­ing six assists and a goal for the sur­pris­ing squad.

But it is likely due to his lat­est out­burst that he is on the out­side look­ing in.  After his team’s 0–0 draw with Bari (his home­town) that saw Sam­p­do­ria drop to third in the Serie A stand­ings, Cas­sano threat­ened to leave his team after he was booed mer­ci­lessly by some of the Sam­p­do­ria fans.  “In the past three or four matches the sup­port­ers have jeered me at times. Sam­p­do­ria are sec­ond in the stand­ings and cer­tainly should not be chas­ing Inter,” he said accord­ing to Goal.com.  “I did it in Rome and I also did it in Madrid. If this keeps hap­pen­ing I will pack my suit­cases and leave from here.”

Sur­pris­ingly, that quote did not warm the hearts of Sam­p­do­ria faith­ful.  What may have excited them was the almost imme­di­ate report that EPL club West Ham had an inter­est in him, as fel­low Ital­ian Gian­franco Zola is keen on bring­ing such a tal­ent (and per­son­al­ity) to his club.

To his credit, Sam­p­do­ria Pres­i­dent Ricardo Gar­rone has defended Cas­sano from his fans’ boos and from the exclu­sion from the Ital­ian national team.  But if Cassano’s goals are to win the scud­etto and make the Ital­ian national team, it may be best that he leave this toxic sit­u­a­tion.  A trans­fer to the EPL would prob­a­bly not work, as he would play for another high-profile club, and that exper­i­ment has failed before.

Plus it would remove him from the Ital­ian soc­cer scene. He would prob­a­bly be best served on a team with an ador­ing and uncrit­i­cal fan base where he could lead the club to Euro­pean com­pe­ti­tion qual­i­fi­ca­tion.  It would have to be in Italy so he could be right under the nose of the Ital­ian national team.  And he would have to be the biggest name on the club.

Should Cas­sano play for….Bari?

Tagged as: Antonio Cassano, AS Bari, Gianfranco Zola, Marcello Lippi, Sampdoria, West Ham United