http://www.foxsportsworld.com/content/view?contentId=1636196 I haven't seen this woman play so I can't pass judgement on this, but I was wondering if anyone here had. What do you all think? Can this be done?
Perugia president Luciano Gaucci has said that he has found the player he wants and that she is a tall, attractive striker. Speaking on Italian television Gaucci said: “She is very tall (1.82m), very beautiful, blonde and has green eyes. She is 22-and-a-half and she plays in an Eastern national team” http://pinkfootball.com/pinkfootball/news-detail.asp?ID=262
Grandstanding From what I understand, that Perugia guy is a hypemaster who could teach Donald Trump and Don King a few lessons. This is pure, unadulterated bullcrap.
"BURNABY, B.C. (CP) - Don't expect members of Canada's women's soccer team to begin looking for spots on men's clubs now that the president of a top Italian league side is courting Swedish player Hanna Ljungberg." http://canada.com/sports/story.html?id=6ED31405-460F-4D84-ACC9-866C26809EF3 Canadian players comment on the issue of women playing with men.
Well, I don't know, but there were two representatives for Perugia at the Sweden-Denmark friendly yesterday. Not extremely talkative, but yes, the club is serious about signing women players and both Hanna Ljungberg and the other swedish striker Victoria Svensson are interesting. The players themselves still considers it a PR stunt, but if there were to come a serious offer, there is, as Hanna said, a limit on how much money you can turn down. Will be interesting to see how this develops, but wouldn't it be kind of like being employed as a court jester?
The stupidity goes on Ok, I've stated my opinion on this in the subject line, but I'll try to be reasonably unbiased. Swedish daily Aftonbladet published an interview with Perugia president Luciano Gaucci today. A few excerpts: - We watched La Svensson in the WWC, we followed the matches on TV and she was brilliant. We want her. - We are interested in both Hanna Ljungberg and Victoria Svensson. We want to sign at least one of them. - This is not a PR stunt. I and my associates who are working with this are all football experts, we are serious. We've picked up players from C2 to serie A before and also very young players. Why shouldn't we bring over these players? - They shouldn't worry about not getting to play. They will. And what better training can they get than with a men's serie A club? - We have evaluated the situation and I and the coach Serse Cosmi agree that the worlds best women can take a place on the team. It's not like Perugia is filled with world champions. Victoria Svensson's club, Djurgården/Älvsjö, confirms that Perugia has appraoched the club for a meeting. The club's president Per Darnell says that the main goal for Victoria next season is the Olympics and she can't spend her time sitting on the bench for a men's team, no matter how much money she'll get. "And it is ridicoulus to believe that she will get to play".
Abby Wambach?? Besides the first part of quote saying "she is very tall," why would you think this sounds like Wambach?? Wambach isn't 22 1/2, she doesn't play for an Eastern national team, and although I wouldn't call Abby unattractive, I have never heard her described before as being a "beautiful blonde."
Italian Men's team to sign Swedish female player The Italian Seria A team Perugia is making a serious attempt to sign one of the Swedish Women's national teams forwards. Either Svensson or Ljungberg. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=281783&cc=5901 Serious? or a publicity stunt. Although I think they are great players, Its difficult even for a top male player to make it in Italy.
Some other threads in this forum on this topic: Wanted: A WOMAN to play for Perugia in Serie A Serie A side interested in a female player Serie A: Perugia look to break gender barrier with signing of female Swedish striker
LLungberg has immense talent. But Serie A is Serie A... And didn't the USWNT play UVA prior to WWC and get beat 3-0.... a bunch of college kids.... who'd get trounced by perugia..who could name whatever score they wished against UVA... Either Perugia is delusional, or they're seeing Hanna from an entirely different perspective than I am...
it's true, and i believe there's some new rules of goal celebration that must be applied when she scores : do not tightly hug her unless she anticipates and she's not allowed to take her shirt off.
Re: Abby Wambach?? First of all, neither Ljungberg nor Svensson are tall, Wambach plays for Eastern club, Freedom. She can be beautiful for someone and not for someone else, everyone has own opinion about that.
I think we have a winner folks! When I saw the headline, my first thought was 'Oh, Perugia's still in Serie A?' Gauci is eccentric, to put it gently. Even in Italy, it's not common for newly hired coaches to quit in disgust before the season even started, but it's happened to him. When Carolina Morace had her brief, unhappy stint (in Serie C, I believe), wasn't that one of Gauci's teams? Viterbese, maybe? In any case, Ljungberg or whoever should really talk to Morace (as the coach of the Italy women she shouldn't be hard to track down). Gauci's probably serious, but there is the question of how much crap you want to put up with.
This is so funny! He obviously fancies himself another Bill Veeck. (an insult to Bill Veeck) It's a silly publicity stunt. And imagine: there are actually Eurosnobs who make fun of MLS. (LMAO - It's so ironic.)
Description doesn't sound anything like either of the two Swedish strikers mentioned. And didn't Ljungberg say something to the effect of "it's news to me" about a month ago? Perugia's an interesting club... IMHO Cosmi's one of the top three coaches in Serie A at the moment, but Gaucci is an idiot, albeit an entertaining one. They wasted their one non-EU new signing for this season on Gadhafi... Gaucci was the one who took out his anger on Ahn Jung-Hwan... and now this.
How much is the a-hole going to offer? Unless it's a whole lot of money, the women should tell him where to shove it. If it is a whole lot of money (I mean a whole lot of money), they should take it and laugh all the way to the bank. Just wondering: Why isn't this thread about a stupid publicity stunt in an otherwise respected Italian league in the Italy forum where it belongs?
I believe Hanna Ljungberg also said something like: "It's obviously a publicity stunt... but there's a limit to how much money you can turn down."
Perugia targeting Svensson/Ljungberg Do you think there is any truth to this article? I don't know much about this coach, but from what I've read in the past few days, sounds like he is a little bit of a publicity junkie. Is this an attempt at getting free press or is there any chance that Svensson or Ljungberg might sign on with this club? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/low/football/europe/3093147.stm
Re: Perugia targeting Svensson/Ljungberg Again, that's not the coach. That's the club president, Luciano Gaucci. The coach, Serse Cosmi, is IMHO one of the best in Italy, but he's basically stuck with all of Gaucci's questionable publicity stunts. He's done admirably considering he's had one hand tied behind his back the entire time he's been at Perugia.