Shopping in Vicenza or shopping in Porto Alegre ?

This thread's place may be here or may be in discussions topic, so a mod can move it in discussions if he thinks that's where it belongs !

My motive for writting this are all these Brazilian and Argentine names that come up in Transfer threads. Marcelo, Gago, Lucas, Higuain, Pezzini.....and atleast 20 more names.
Brazil, with 5 WC titles, is concidered to be the greatest football power, a country where good players grow up on the trees. I wanna say, there's no doubt great talents can be found in S. America...but what about our own backyard ?

Italy, not Brazil or Argentina, is the World Champion in football. Italy, with 4 WC titles is just behind Brazil in the All-time list.
Where did these world champions play when they were 18, 19 or 20 years old ? Not in Brazil, i can say !
19 yers old Roberto Baggio from FC Vicenza, 19 years old Del Piero from Padova FC, 18 years old Andrea Pirlo from Brescia FC , 20 years old Zambrotta from FC Bari, 20 years old Inzaghi from Albinoleffe , 17 years old Luca Toni from Modena, 18 years old Perrotta from Regina, 18 years old Cassano from Bari................. wanna hear more names? and hear where were all of them when they were 18,19,20 years old ? Where are all of them now ? On top of the world, right ?

Italy u-21 squad is concidered to be the best european squad traditionally. 5 times champions in last 8 european championships !

I must tell you that traditionally Milan and most of all Juventus were going after this Italian talents.
There were 5 Milan players winning the WC, there were 5 current and 3 ex Juve players in Italian winning team in 2006.
In 1994, when Italy almost won the WC, 9 players came from AC Milan, 4 from Juventus.
In 1982 when Italy became the champion of the world for the 3rd time, Juventus had 8 of it's players in the team.

It's obvious Milan was going after the Italian greatest talents in the past.
But now, i can see Juve is again interested in almost every young Italian out there, but there is some trend in Milan, for going after south Americans and fogetting the Italians.

Marco Amelia aint the only young talent in Italy. Italians made it to the European u21 championship again, after eliminating one of the biggest favourites- Spain.
And again, there are fantastic talents in this team :
Did you hear about Italian u21 number 10, Alessandro Rosina from Torino ?
The young striker Graziano Pelle from Genoa ?
Nicola Pozzi, who's Milan's player actually, and is now loaned in Empoli ? He does plays for Italian u21 team !
What happened to Milan's interest in young Giuseppe Rossi ?
Danielle Dessena from Parma , anyone ? Juve is allready flerting with him!
Andrea Mantovani from Chievo ? Antonio Nocerino from Piacenza ?
Ok, some of them can not be bought easily by Milan, like Juve's Chiellini, Palladino and Paro ( Paro is compared to Pirlo, and he even got a call from Donadoni for a friendly match Italy plays this November). Montolivo from Fiorentina, Aqualiani from Roma etc...
They are all u21 players, and stongest favourites to win European gold again.

I believe you understood my point !
All these players are based in Italy allready, and unlike Marcelo, they don't cheer for Real Madrid and they don't wanna play in Spain only.
As for the talent..... similar, same, or even bigger talent than the south americans !

Part of it comes down to cost. Which seems to be a similar trouble in England. Buying homegrown talents is expensive in both these countries. Unless you're lucky enough to purchase a young Italian player just before he becomes a possible star, you run the risk of having your wallet emptied. South American clubs are poorer and some South American talents are ludicrously cheaper.

So cost is one thing.

The other big problem is that some of these players are already owned by big clubs which makes them hard to get. Teams like Roma, Juve, Man Utd are hardly likely to give up their future stars easily or cheaply. So again it comes back to cost.

Though i may post alot about these South American players, i would prefer to see Milan have a strong Italian core throughout the team if possible or at least have half the squad Italian. So if you can find an Italian who is seen to be as talented as Marcelo and available for as little as 7 million euros, then please inform us! I'd ask you to inform Braida, but as your Juventini, you'd go straight to Deschamps

I too hope Milan doesn't get overrun with foreigners. Sure 1-2 south americans aren't a problem..but when more than half the starting 11 isn't italian..there's a problem. Note I'm not saying that it is at the moment..but if it gets to that, that's really sad. BTW Carlo said that Antonelli is in terms of talent, ready for the first team. He just needs to grow physically.

Originally Posted by Jim_UK

Part of it comes down to cost. Which seems to be a similar trouble in England. Buying homegrown talents is expensive in both these countries. Unless you're lucky enough to purchase a young Italian player just before he becomes a possible star, you run the risk of having your wallet emptied. South American clubs are poorer and some South American talents are ludicrously cheaper.

So cost is one thing.

The other big problem is that some of these players are already owned by big clubs which makes them hard to get. Teams like Roma, Juve, Man Utd are hardly likely to give up their future stars easily or cheaply. So again it comes back to cost.

Though i may post alot about these South American players, i would prefer to see Milan have a strong Italian core throughout the team if possible or at least have half the squad Italian. So if you can find an Italian who is seen to be as talented as Marcelo and available for as little as 7 million euros, then please inform us! I'd ask you to inform Braida, but as your Juventini, you'd go straight to Deschamps

You got that right. Marcelo for example has a ludicrisly low price tag of 6million. I have a feeling of if he was in Europe youth team he's tag would be at least double that. It just comes down to monetry value. Euros/pounds are worth alot to South America and especially African clubs. I'll tell you 1 thing. If milan can scout a player in Africa with a talent like Marcelo id guarantee less than a million euro price! But of course it would be near impossible to find a good player in Africa

great post Tony29., totally agree.

i think one more reason why they go for south americans is that they are more hyped and can be better sold in italy. most people neve have seen marcelo or other "future stars" from SA play and so it is easy for papers to hype them through the roof.

the unknown is always mysterious

During this summer, I was actually dreaming of this lineup for this season, 9 Italians and 2 foreigners in the starting 11:

----------------Buffon-----------------------


-Zambrotta--Nesta---Kaladze-----------------
----------------------------------Maldini-----


------------------Gattuso-------------------
------------------------Pirlo-----------------


Foggia---------------------------------------
-------------------Kaka----------------------

----------------------------Cassano----------
--------------Gilardino------------------------

1) I love Dida, but Buffon is the only one that I don't mind as a replacement;
2) with Foggia and Cassno, even Pippo-Gilardino combo would work; the reason that this duo doesn't work out now is that we don't have a player like E$ who can stretch the opponent's defense; and Gilardino and Pippo often run into each other's way on the pitch.

stupid Galliani (Foggia, Zambrotta, Buffon) and damn Juve too (Zambrotta, Buffon). I know there is never IF, but IF we had this lineup and things could have been totally different.

I often miss the old policy that one team can only have 3 registered foreigner players. Last season, I would rather that Ancelotti gave more chances to Borriello than to Amoroso, even though I clearly understood that an old Amoroso is still much better than Borriello. I guess I am paranoid and biased.


also, I don't think that's a secret, but I always hope to have more Italian young talents in the squad, like our Foggia, Abate, Pozzi, Aubameyang (brothers). I have seen them play, and I think they are not bad. Given chances, they can only get better. I don't know about Di Gennaro, but I really don't mind giving him a chance. I also like to have from Juventus Balzaretti (?) and Chiellini; and Pasquale from Fiorentina (is he the one that used to play in Inter?). I regret that Panucci was such an @$$hole and Coco was a traitor; I regret that we spent so much money on Donati and he turned out useless (well, he did score an own goal for us this Wednesday, but it wasn't counted), and I haven't figured out why we had to loan out Foggia even though we didn't get Oddo and that Foggia could be our only true winger considering that Zambrotta wasn't coming and Serginho was injured...

well, I need to go to lunch now; and see you lot in two hours. Let's hope that we can kill Roma this afternoon. We need that.

AS ALWAYS, FORZA MILAN!!!

Originally Posted by Xudong

I often miss the old policy that one team can only have 3 registered foreigner players. Last season, I would rather that Ancelotti gave more chances to Borriello than to Amoroso, even though I clearly understood that an old Amoroso is still much better than Borriello. I guess I am paranoid and biased.

also, I don't think that's a secret, but I always hope to have more Italian young talents in the squad, like our Foggia, Abate, Pozzi, Aubameyang (brothers). I have seen them play, and I think they are not bad. Given chances, they can only get better. I don't know about Di Gennaro, but I really don't mind giving him a chance. I also like to have from Juventus Balzaretti (?) and Chiellini; and Pasquale from Fiorentina (is he the one that used to play in Inter?). I regret that Panucci was such an @$$hole and Coco was a traitor; I regret that we spent so much money on Donati and he turned out useless (well, he did score an own goal for us this Wednesday, but it wasn't counted), and I haven't figured out why we had to loan out Foggia even though we didn't get Oddo and that Foggia could be our only true winger considering that Zambrotta wasn't coming and Serginho was injured...

well, I need to go to lunch now; and see you lot in two hours. Let's hope that we can kill Roma this afternoon. We need that.

AS ALWAYS, FORZA MILAN!!!

Yes, you are

Originally Posted by Brasileiro

Yes, you are

How rude!

Add into that the fact that so many of the youth products hyped up in Italy over recent years following U-21 performances have turned out to be rather useless. Remember Comandini? The next Boninsegna, they said. Or Fausto Rossini, rated at $20 million before he'd even scored more than five goals in a season?

It's noticeable how Italy produces more late developers than elsewhere, especially with regard to strikers (Inzaghi, Toni etc). Milan have signed lots of young Italians in recent years, and a fair proportion have been rubbish. Dalla Bona anyone?

Sign good players at all costs. Preferably Italian, but make sure they're good above all else.

Xudong......I am not 100% positive, but Fiorentina's player is Manuel Pasqual. He is a different person then Giovani Pasquale, who played for Inter but now I think playes for Livorno. Again, I'm not sure.

Originally Posted by nefremo

Xudong......I am not 100% positive, but Fiorentina's player is Manuel Pasqual. He is a different person then Giovani Pasquale, who played for Inter but now I think playes for Livorno. Again, I'm not sure.

You're right !
Paqual is a Maradona compared to Pasquale.
If i'm not wrong he was leading the assist list last season. Great left foot and very fast left back/midfielder. Defensively he must improve, tho !

I totally agree that Milan should also have a look at italian players. As an italian team, our team should consist mainly of italians, just added by 4-5 foreigners that are really some of the best of the best!

Old topic activated again

I don't know if many of you guys are in position to watch more serie A matches , apart from Milan's matches.
If some of you are ( i know guys from ex-Yugoslavia can watch at least 2-3 matches per week) then this thread could be a good place to talk about promising youngsters based in Italy , who made a good impression on you.

I was following some of the smaller teams in serie A closely, and i "felt in love" with 2 youngsters.

1. Cristián Zapata ( Udinese)
Nationality : Colombian
Age: 20
Position : Central Defender
------------------------
Imo, the best defender of serie A this season.
Really, i like watching organized defense, and i like good defenders so i think i can recognize a good defender when i see one.
But this guy is woooooow.
Only 20 years old and plays like an experienced world class defender. I watched him again yesterday against Torino and he totally frustrated Torino's attackers and midfielders. Great positioning, strenght, headings, tackles.
Juve was unsuccesful in the atempt to buy this youngster, because Udinese knows they have real gold in their team.
Later in the night i watched Palermo-Lazio and i compared Zapata with Barzagli.
I can tell you there's a huge difference and Barzagli is sooo overrated. Barza doesn't make some silly mistakes, but he's out of position many times and he's not leading the defense.
Zapata is. At only 20 he's the true leader of Udinese's defence. If Natali or the other defenders make a mistake, Zapata is there to cover them.
He'll be BIG, trust me.
Rate : 9.5



2. Alessandro Rossina (Torino)
Nationality : Italian
Age :23
Position : Attacking Midfielder
------------------------
It's not like i descovered him or anything, since all Italy talks about this guy as the next big thing of Italian football - the successor of Del Piero and Totti.
Incredibille ball control, simply incredibille. And he runs, runs, runs. Only Gattuso runs more than this guy.
He's number 10 of Italian u-21 team and number 10 in Torino also.
Great vision, and the most important thing is not only he's an assist man but he also scores a lot ( Leads the scorers and assists list in Torino)
But he's kinda stubborn and sometimes he's trying to do everything by himself. If he improves this, then he'll be perfect

Rate: 9


-----------------

Now, it will be good if you all write here whenever you see someone young and extra talented.

tony,zapata is amazing I have read that milan want him.Bealive me I didnt know nothing abaut his age and I think he is older but when i read y post and he is only 20 wooooow forget all defenders just bring zapata mr.berlu