Striking Problem ; is Amauri the Solution ?

March 17th, 2008 | by: Marco Stucazzo | View Comments

The reigning World Champions are looking forward to their Swissaustrian stay this summer. This is one of the deepest teams on the Travelling National Carnival. Marco Amelia’s performance for Livorno and his solid play against an aggressive Portuguese squad has demonstrated that he’s an excellent keeper. Not Gigi good but honestly, who is? Even without Nesta, the Defensive backline posses 2 world class players per position. The midfield is probably the most complete of any national team.

Versatile players like Perrotta, Camoranesi and Aquilani, give Italy a lot of different tactical options. And I’m sure you’ve heard the names Pirlo and Gattuso before. What I’m trying to say is that if Daniele ”DDR” De Rossi is considered a substitute, that means you have a hell of a midfield. However on offence we have…uh…Luca Toni. Toni e Fulmini might have bloomed late but what a yield of goals he managed to produce. If he was 25, he’d be worth around 420 M $!

Nonetheless, Coach Donadoni is posed with a striking problem. What happens if Luca Toni dies unexpectedly?

Gilardino isn’t looking like the player he was at Parma, Cristiano Lucarelli isn’t cutting it, Iaquinta’s not exactly a prototypical Centre Forward, Stefano Okaka Chuka isn’t ready yet, Borriello’s nothing more than flash in a pan and and Bobo Vieri is in constant need of geriatric care.

This is exactly why the; Should Amauri play for Italy? Debate has started. Just like he did in Palermo, Amauri, technically speaking of course, would be an ideal Luca Toni replacement. The 27 year old Brazilian will be receiving his Italian citizenship shortly and for some odd reason he has never been called up to the Brazil NT.

Amauri has never hidden the fact that unhappy at being shunned by Dunga and his Brazillian Mennonites. He has also stated that:

“I hope to obtain an Italian passport shortly and maybe I will go to the European Championships.”

Amauri has been on the International football map since his arrival in Palermo, the capital city of the beautiful/marvellous underestimated Gem that I like to call Sicily ( NO it isn’t dangerous and I don’t care that you don’t believe me because you rented(downloaded for all you U25’s here) The Godfather and I Cento Passi )

So I believe that Steven from the Palermo page is better suited to give you an opinion on the Brazilian Born Big Boy :

I’m probably not unbiased enough to be writing an objective article on Amauri. Ever since his transfer from Chievo, he has been a delight to Palermo-fans and football-fans thoughout Italy. It’s a miracle that the Brazilian is still playing in Sicily: without last year’s injury, he would be showing off his talent in the Champions League. It’s just a matter of time before he can. I don’t believe there’s one single Rosanero-fan who believes that we will see Nappy in the pink shirt again next year. The price has been set at an incredible 25 million euros, but Amauri’s all worth it. He can act as a goal machine when you put that decisive wingman next to him, but he can also be that wingman. Just go to YouTube and find his marvellous assist for Miccoli in the game against Fiorentina.

Another question is if we should involve Amauri in the Italy-squad. I say we should. The nationality-discussion is bullshit: the guy has been playing here for years, speaks the language better than most Napolitani and Camoranesi and Sivori also did it. Is he good enough? Yes. With Toni, we have a perfect goal machine. But what if Toni gets injured? Quagliarella did well but hasn’t been able to keep his form, Di Natale isn’t an Italy-goalmachine, Pippo’s too old, Gila’s going downhill and Cassano’s just a loose canon. Why not give Amauri a chance? If it doesn’t work out, no harm done. If it does…hello European Championship!

I love Amauri’s skill and play I’m all for ”dropping the flags” and our globalized world is bringing humans closer every minute, but this has nothing to do with; What defines/qualifies someone as Italian? How about Giuseppe Rossi ? He was also born outside the Boot.

Steven’s right, the nationality-discussion is bullshit,but please let me disagree with Amauri’s inclusion ; Italy are World Champions and you don’t see Brazil doing it.

Italy doesn’t need to use the same tactics as Qatar, or to a certain extent, Portugal. Seeing how a portion of the Italian fans have always poked fun at France for ”adding naturalized foreigners*” to their squad, this would make no sense.

* (I’m in no way implying whatsoever about the French NT. But let’s be honest, we’ve heard it before. An African friend of mine mentioned after the 2006 final: I’m not sad because Italy beat France, I’m sad because they beat Africa.)

Not unlike Mauro Camoranesi, Amauri has said in the past that he would only accept an Azzurri call up if he felt he had no chance whatsoever at breaking the Brazilian roster.

This ”Oriundi” situation isn’t the 1st ever. We all know about Mauro Camoranesi and Post War legends Omar Sivori , Jose Altafini and Angelo Sormani.

Nonetheless, Why should a footballing power like Italia accept being a foreign born player’s plan B? We‘re as Sexy as that Brazilian girl (Does Brazil officially have the monopoly on Sexiest Citizens? If not we should start a poll and make it official)

Anyways, having already gone through the extremely pleasant joys of Italian Bureaucracy ; There’s no way in Hell Amauri will get his passport in time to fly the friendly Swiss Airs.

It truly a shame that International Football fans don’t get the chance to see players like Amauri on the biggest stages. But Tell that to Ryan Giggs…