Antonio Cassano
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Antonio Cassano | ||
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Striker, Deep-lying Forward | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Sampdoria | ||
| Number | 18 | ||
| ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 6 September 2006 | |||
Antonio Cassano (IPA Italian: [an'toːnio kas'saːno]) (born July 12, 1982 in Bari) is an Italian football player, who is currently signed for Italian club side Sampdoria and is an occasional member of the Italian national team. He is a skillful, two-footed forward.
Variously nicknamed Peter Pan, Fantantonio, El Pibe de Bari (a clear reference to Diego Maradona's nickname) and Il Gioiello di Bari Vecchia (the jewel of Old Bari), Cassano has acquired a reputation for petulance that has often attracted more media attention than his ability as a player. He has lent his name to the Italian neologism cassanata, coined by Fabio Capello in November 2002 and subsequently used by journalists to refer to any behaviour incompatible with team spirit in football.[1]
Biography
Cassano was born on July 12, 1982, the day next to Italy's win over West Germany in the 1982 FIFA World Cup Final. He grew up poor in the old section of Bari, Bari Vecchia. As a child, he always played football in the streets of Bari and was picked up by an AS Bari scout and brought up through the biancorossi's youth system.
Early career
Cassano made his Italian Serie A league debut for Bari in 1999, against local rivals US Lecce. A week later, he scored a superb goal against Inter Milan, one of the clubs who had courted Cassano before he signed a professional contract with his hometown club.
The top clubs in Italy each kept a close eye on Cassano, and with rumours of a pre-contract agreement having been signed with AS Roma, he eventually signed for the then Serie A champions in the summer of 2001. The transfer fee of around €28m, was considered by some a huge amount to pay for a player who was still only 19 years old, with Juventus general director Luciano Moggi notably noting: "Cassano is a real talent, but €28m for a player of his age is excessive. It's too soon to understand exactly how much he is worth."
Cassano's first season at Roma produced only five goals. As he developed his game, he began to come to the attention of those in charge of the national side, culminating in a scoring debut for Italy in November 2003, against Poland. Cassano played for the Azzurri squad in UEFA Euro 2004, at the age of 22. After Italian playmaker Francesco Totti was suspended after having spat at Danish Christian Poulsen in a round group match, Cassano won a place in the starting line-up and scored a goal against Sweden and a last-minute winner against Bulgaria. However, Italy was eliminated in the group stage on goal difference. He was described by Giovanni Trapattoni as "the future of Italian football".
Roma controversies
It was during this period that Cassano's surliness began to make the newspapers. He had numerous disputes with coaches at the club and the national team, his relationship with then Roma coach Fabio Capello being notably a fractious one - the pair fell out over Cassano's omission from a practice match a few days after his international debut.
In the 2003 Coppa Italia finals against AC Milan, Cassano was sent off when he protested at a decision, and Cassano insistently showed the horns gesture towards the referee while leaving the pitch. In the 2004-05 season, after the resignation of Roma manager Cesare Prandelli, Cassano quarrelled with replacement Rudi Völler until the poor performance of the club forced Völler to resign only a month after his appointment. In a December 2004 interview, Cassano claimed to miss Capello, whom he considered to be "like a father".
He was omitted from the squad while Luigi Del Neri, the third AS Roma coach of the season, was in charge. Del Neri resigned in the middle of the season, being replaced by youth team boss and former AS Roma legend Bruno Conti after a run of disastrous results. Cassano returned playing again under Conti, and even served as Roma team captain when Francesco Totti was suspended for five matches toward the end of the season.
During the 2005-06 pre-season, while Roma was coached by Luciano Spalletti, Cassano proved himself to be in constant conflict with the club management over the renewal of his contract, which was due to expire on June 30, 2006. Many media commentators speculated that Cassano would leave Roma to join his former coach Fabio Capello at Juventus, but he eventually joined Real Madrid in January 2006, notoriously without saying good-bye to his Roma teammates.
Transfer to Real Madrid
Cassano became the second ever Italian player to sign for Real Madrid following Christian Panucci, a former teammate of his at AS Roma. He scored on his debut on January 18, 2006 in a Copa del Rey match against Real Betis. He also scored in Real Madrid's 2-1 win over city rivals Atlético Madrid, but his failure to gain a regular place prompted speculation that Madrid signed him primarily to cash in on his resale value in his native Italy. Meanwhile reports of Cassano's erratic and anti-social behaviour continued, and his expanding waistline due to a weakness for junk food led in May 2006 to Madrid fining him for every gram he remained overweight, as well as jokes regarding the issue, and even an imitation by Spanish comedian Carlos Latre in which he played on Cassano's habit of excessive eating. He was consequently omitted from Italy's victorious 2006 World Cup squad.
Hopes were raised of a revival in Cassano's career when Fabio Capello, his mentor and former manager at Roma, joined Real Madrid in the summer of 2006 following his departure from Juventus in the wake of the Serie A scandal of 2006.
Return to the Azzurri
After an absence of about a year, Cassano was called up by new head coach Roberto Donadoni to the Italian national team for two Euro 2008 qualifying matches in September 2006. On September 2, Cassano played the full 90 minutes against Lithuania, setting up a goal in the 1-1 draw and being arguably the best player in the team. However his performance in the next qualifying match, the 3-1 defeat by France on September 6, was unimpressive.
Real Madrid controversies
On October 30, 2006 the Real Madrid club website announced that Cassano had been temporarily suspended from the team, citing his “disrespect” of coach Fabio Capello following a dressing room argument arising from his omission from the team after a game against Gimnastic de Tarragona. According to Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, Cassano reportedly said that he had always stood behind Capello, since their days at Roma, and asked Capello "Is this how you repay me?".[citation needed]
Speculation abounded as to Cassano's future as a result of his outburst. He was linked with moves to AC Milan, Inter Milan, Fiorentina, Italian Serie B team SSC Napoli, and Newcastle United. In an interview with a Roman radio station, Cassano told the interviewer he would "walk all the way back to Roma", that he felt he owes the club, and that he should probably never have left in the first place. He also indicated his eagerness to make peace with Roma captain Francesco Totti with whom he fell out before his departure from Roma.
However Cassano did not leave in the January transfer window, and his continued omission from the side despite being reinstated to the first team squad was componded by an ankle injury which effectively ended his season. In an interview with Spanish radio in July 2007, the president of Real Madrid Ramon Calderon described Cassano's attitude as "unsustainable in the last couple of months" and indicated that he would be leaving the club.[2].
Honours
- Italian Super Cup: 2001
- Spanish La Liga: 2006-07
References
- ^ "Antonio il terribile" (in Italian). Gazzetta dello Sport. 2006-01-01. Retrieved 2007-07-30.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ ""Después de este primer año en la presidencia, mantengo la ilusión del primer día"" (in Spanish). Real Madrid CF. 2007-07-03. Retrieved 2007-07-30.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)