ANTONIO CASSANO PROFILE - ITALY PLAYERS AT EURO 2008
June 1st, 2008
Antonio Cassano (born July 12, 1982 in Bari) is an Italian football player, currently playing for U.C. Sampdoria. He was transferred to the Italian Serie A club in August 2007 on a one-year loan deal from Real Madrid CF, both teams agreeing to share the cost of his wages. Although capped 10 times for Italian national team, he was not included in the victorious Italy squad at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. He is a skillful, two-footed deep lying forward known for his technique and dribbling, but has acquired a reputation for petulance that has often attracted more media attention than his ability as a player, hence the Italian neologism Cassanata, which was coined by Fabio Capello in November 2002 and subsequently used by journalists to refer to any behaviour incompatible with team spirit in football.
Early career
Cassano was born the day after Italy’s win over 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 A.S. Bari scout and brought up through the biancorossi’s youth system. Cassano’s father left when Antonio was an infant.
Cassano made his Italian Serie A league debut for Bari in 1999, against local rivals 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 amid rumours of a pre-contract agreement with 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. Juventus general director Luciano Moggi commented, "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 his game developed, he began to come to the attention of the national side selectors, 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 following a spitting incident with Danish Christian Poulsen in a 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 attract media attention. 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 to the team 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 was in constant conflict with the club management over the renewal of his contract, which was due to expire on June 30, 2006. 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 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, This is something of a surprise to many people bearing in mind the historical importance and prowess of Italian footballers and the dominance of Real Madrid in European football. He debuted for Los Merengues on January 18, 2006 in a Copa del Rey match against Real Betis, and scored his first goal just three minutes after he came on during the second half. 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. Cassano became a figure of ridicule in the Spanish media, including a parody by comedian Carlos Latre playing on Cassano’s habit of excessive eating. He was 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 Calciopoli scandal.
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. In that time Cassano joined David Beckham and Ronaldo in the unwanted players list for Capello.
Speculation abounded as to Cassano’s future as a result of his outburst. He was linked with moves to Inter Milan, AC Milan, Newcastle United, S.S.C. Napoli, Fiorentina , Manchester City, and Sampdoria. 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.
