Italian Exodus, Movement of the Players

February 14th, 2008 | by: Marco Stucazzo | View Comments

exodus : N. a journey by a large group to escape from a hostile
environment [syn: hegira, hejira]

Italy’s 2006 World Cup winning squad was the only team in the tournament that had only domestic based players. Even if Marco Materazzi, Gennaro Gattuso and of course, Mauro Camoranesi all had some foreign football experience, No member of that championship winning squad was playing in the Premiership, La Liga or anywhere else for that matter.

All of the Azzurri world champions were plying their trade in Italy’s Serie A and Marcello Lippi was coming off a very successful stint with Juve. A lot of pundits and analysts explained that that was one of the key factors that led Italy to victory in Germany. All the players we’re able to come together amongst the controversy caused by Calciopoli. Now 4 of those Italian International players are helping out a team outside of Italy!

So what happened ?

In the last millennium, you would rarely see an Italian player emigrate to go play in another championship. It was usually only at the end their careers that Italian-born players would go abroad for some fresh air and a new experience. Roberto Donadoni, Walter Zenga and Giorgio Chinaglia all had American adventures with the Don Doni even going to Mecca so he could join Saudi Arabian club Al-Ittihad a Jeddah based club. Gianluca Vialli, Pierluigi Casiraghi and Gianfranco Zola all spent some time in England, all with Chelsea.

There is the strange-but-understandable-choice, like Ivan Pelizzoli, who was given the chance to play some Champions league football after Reggina cashed in on Lokomotiv Moscow’s muchos roubles .

But the odd ones are still uncommon however; There is, Ex U21 CB Joseph Oshadogan, He left Ternana at 31 to become captain of Widzew Lodz, in Poland. Stefano Napoleoni , an amateur player from Tor di Quinto plays there as well. 1982 World Cup winner Antonio Cabrini decided to take a job as Syria’s National Team coach, after coaching the likes of Pisa and Novara

You also had the occasional internships abroad to sharpen the skills;

Spain’s Athletico Madrid had the chance to see Bobo for one season and even Cristiano Lucarelli played 13 games with Valencia back in the 90’s. Marco Materazzi’s short Everton stint and Gennaro Gattuso’s time in Scotland with Rangers is surely coincidental with their world-renowned gritty hard-nosed play.

Of course you have the exceptions that confirm the rule like; Fabrizio Ravanelli’s Marseille/Middlesbrough days (Don’t let the white hair fool you, he was 28 years old!) Carlo Cudicini’s Love of London and of course, Christian Panucci’s Real Madrid time

What i’m trying to say is that the time when an Italian player abroad was as uncommon as a clean Tour De France or a non pompous Parisian, is long gone. Even Owners are emigrating, like Flavio Briatore and his Queen’s Park Rangers. There even was some talk about Aldo Spinelli purchasing part of France Ligue 1 club Nice.

It can be understandable that our stars are moving abroad seeing how the British Pound and the fancy Spanish league can be quite enticing. However, our promising youngsters are being poached by teams abroad like Giuseppe Rossi, Arturo Lupoli and more recently, Graziano Pellè who’s now in Holland’s Eredivisie, under the tutelage of Louis Van Gaal. The recent transfer window saw Manchester City poach a couple of youngsters as well; Roberto Mancini’s son and Marco Giombetti , 17 year old star of Viterbese’s Primavera side. Why

Now more than 30 Italians are playing or coaching abroad, 6 Italian Internationals; Out of that number 4 players are World Cup winners. Some stars went as far away as Russia, Poland, Meccah, Japan, Hungary, Romania, the Ukraine (even if it was only a short time) and even Syria.

Enzo Maresca, Emiliano Moretti and Fabrizio Miccoli started the recent trend of staying more than one season and it is now catching on. Is it the 2006 scandal, the violence in Italian football, the implosion of Juve or the better wages? Serie A really isn’t that far behind La Liga and the Premiership in terms of talent, so why do a boatload of Italian players exiting? Luca Toni, Gianluca Zambrotta, Fabio Cannavaro and Fabio Grosso are all world cup champs.

Massimo Donati, Enzo Maresca and Giuseppe Rossi have shined for the U21 side many a times. So why does Italy let these talents go abroad? Who knows, maybe it will be beneficial for the Italian game to get a little bit of useful knowledge from abroad.

So what would be the best Italians abroad Starting 11?

i’ll answer that later