It’s in the Cards

April 16th, 2012 | by: elaine | Comments Off

For anyone not familiar with the company called Panini, they don’t make sandwiches, they make football trading cards and stickers. Recently, they’ve released their 20 player Euro 2012 set, effectively “calling up” 20 Italian players, even if Prandelli will actually call up 23. Glaring omissions included Antonio Cassano and Giuseppe Rossi, since it was a race against time for them to achieve match fitness. At this point, given Rossi’s untimely re-injury on Friday, Cassano is still an “if.”

Here are the 20 players memorialized in this year’s Panini Euro 2012 album:

Gianluigi Buffon, Morgan De Sanctis; Giorgio Chiellini, Andrea Barzagli, Andrea Ranocchia, Federico Balzaretti, Domenico Criscito, Christian Maggio; Daniele De Rossi, Andrea Pirlo, Thiago Motta, Claudio Marchisio, Riccardo Montolivo, Alberto Aquilani, Simone Pepe; Sebastian Giovinco, Pablo Daniel Osvaldo, Antonio Di Natale, Giampaolo Pazzini, Mario Balotelli.

1) Who doesn’t belong in this squad?

2) Who does belong but is not listed? (someone you really believe might be called up)

And now for a little fun. Who would never belong in the squad in a million years? They must have an Italian passport and be an active player now. (Ideally someone who might be considered only after Prandelli drank a whole bottle of Limoncelli.) Best answer wins a special virtual gift from me. Here’s my answer:

Elaine is on Twitter where she doesn’t pretend to know who Prandelli will call up or if he even drinks Limoncelli. @ItalyWCB