Chiming in on ‘the other’ Rossi

January 24th, 2006 | by: Jay |

If you’re a fan of keeping tabs on the ‘up and comers’….keep an eye on the mini-drama surrounding Giuseppe Rossi, the teenage striker who has come to life for Manchester United in recent weeks.

The former Parma player, who apparently is quite the prodigy according to Ferg and Ole Gunner Solskaer among others, is being wooed by US coach Bruce Arena to play for the American side, even though he is not cap-tied to the US and could still play for Italy. (Backstory: Rossi’s father is a native of Italy, but Giuseppe was born in New Jersey, and the family moved back to Italy when Giuseppe was 13 to facilitate his ease into the Parma youth system.) The younger Rossi has intimated that he’d like to play for Italy, but the odds would appear small right now.

My ‘two cents’ on the matter is this— if it’s your dream then so be it, but It’s nearly inconceivable that a striker who hasn’t logged serious playing in Serie A would make the Italian national side. And yes, we all remember Gianfranco Zola at Chelsea, but Zola had scads of Serie A experience at that point. The lad is only 19, so there is still the possibility he’ll end up back in Italy if he wants to be there. But if he’s that good, how likely is it that Man U will let him go? File this under “world cup 2010” and we’ll see what jersey Rossi is wearing then.

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Mitchell

He might be good but I don’t think Rossi would earn serious minutes for the US at the World Cup. It is the same situation Adu faced with Ghana wooing him. Go for the immediate reward or wait your turn till 2010.
justin

if he chose to play for the US he would be making a MAJOR MISTAKE. He is still young, he needs to work his way into the Man U first team and then he can consider a move to Serie A and a callup to the national setup. It is stupid that the Italian FA dropped Rossi from the U19 team, but really he should be playing for Italy’s U21 team, he is without question good enough.

If you want to start making comparisons, I would consider Rossi as the next Francesco Totti
Mark

Rossi was the Italian U17 captain. He was an Italian U19 at the age of 16 and was their top scorer in the qualification for the recent youth World Cup. His record is close to 18 goals in 29 games. For Manchester United he has scored 4 senior gaols from just 5 starts, and for the reserves team he has managed 24 goals in 20 games so far this season, making him the top scorer in the country. But despite this, the Italian FA and the Italian youth coach have completely ignored him since he left Italy, which is a real shame. But it will be them that miss out if they don’t use him in the future.