Yeah those were the days of real Italian calcio. Viola fans turned on Batigol when he was transferred to Roma and won the scudetto. When I was moving back to San Jose in 2005, Batistuta was about to buy a villa near where I was working at the Piazzale Michelangelo but not sure if he did or not. Sadly, Serie A is now know as retirement league. Rafa Marquez somehow made his way there and, there is Buffon, Di Natale, Totti, Pirlo and Toni. They are all (w/ the exception of Rafa) still effective but lacking at times. Its sad that they are all still playing at their ages but they will all be retiring soon. Pirlo was criticized brutally just yesterday by journalists for being completely ineffective. Not sure if he is coming to MLS at seasons end or not. To tell the truth, if he does come, he probably won't do much here as his style wouldn't mesh with most MLS players. I would love to see him though.
I totally agree with the premise but damn why does everyone have diminish Landon Donovan? I'd take LD in his prime over Cahill in his prime any day of the week.
Who refers to seria A as a retirement league ? Any league with Pogba , Tevex , Hig , Hamsik etc. is far from a retirement league. Fair enough the quality has dropped mainly because of fianances but its far from a retirment league.
Mostly Italian pundits. Marco Tardelli and Marco Civoli and other journalists. Its still a top league in my opinion but its not really the perception in Italy. It probably has to do with the crisis of the economy and not many top players coming aboard and because Milan hasn't won the CL since 2007.
Well yeh they need to figure something out , it's sad to see some of the names that are lining out for Inter and Milan these days , some truly awful footballers. Roma , Juve and Napoli really even that out though. I'd love to hear more about your time working for Fiorentina , what players did you work with ?
That has always been the general consensus and slogan. Unfortunately, because of the influx of foreigners and the worst economic crisis since WW2, they lost something in the development of younger players. Probably why Pirlo, Toni, Totti & DiNatale are all still playing. There is still a big push and wanting the younger players to start playing though.... Interestingly, when they were relegated to the C2, only Serie A holder over was a 36 year old Angelo Di Livio. He couldn't keep up with the rest of the players and got his legs broken after only 16 games in the 4th tier and couldn't hang with the rest of the players even though he had just played in the 2002 WC. I mostly knew the relatively unknowns at the time, Alessandro Diamanti and Fabio Quagliarella. I also helped out a German, and an African player they had gotten for a short period. They/we were all gone the next year when they skipped a tier and got promoted to the Serie B or 2nd tier. Christian Riganò, the leading scorer at the time was a stud. I'm willing to bet most MLS teams today will have had trouble with that team.
Yeh some decent players . If you worked with them you definitley you definitley worked with Deloria and Keise. They were the same era , 02 - 05 . I remember seeing Keise tear chiellini apart in a friendly, why didnt it work out for them ? Keise in particular
Serious question. Has anyone from MLS ever said they don't want to be a "retirement" league? They seem to be perfectly happy getting these big name guys at the end of their careers. I personally see no issue with it, but that is just my opinion.
I don't remember those guys. I remember Chiellini back then at Livorno and he was just average and would get burned quite a bit. He came to Florence in 04 when I was already gone. Being with the national team, he has improved. Either that or all the better defenders retired.
Is it? Since signing Beckham and others, LAG have gone from nothing to an internationally known brand and by far the best known club in the rest of the world. That's not a quick fix or gimmick. That's good marketing.
I agree but I wasn't referring to the Beckham signing in that sentence. Yes the signing has been great marketing for them but it was also pretty much that way before Beckham's signing for both the Metrostars and the Galaxy. That however, had to do mostly with the cities those clubs play in or rather, NY & LA. That is why all the superstars since 1996 have traditionally signed with those clubs. I seem to remember 70,000 fans in attendance at the Rose Bowl. cheering on a Mexican GK in the inaugural year with 10,000 fans being turned away at the gate on opening night. When I lived in Europe from 2001-2005, the Galaxy was a well known team and Beckham was nowhere near LA. I remember the big rumor at the time that Sigi Schmid wanted to sign Jurgen Klinsmann and everyone knew it would be with the LA Galaxy not the KC Wiz.
. . . . Or he's gotten better with pushing the boundaries of the rules and gaining an advantage by crossing the line. That's why he sucks for la Azzuri because he doesn't get away with murder in like he does in Serie A.
I think with the decline or retirement of the great Italian defenders , I.E. Nela, Bergomi, Cannavaro, Costacurta, Vierchowod, Maldini, Baresi, Tassotti , Materazzi, and Nesta and many, many others, sadly, Chiellini is Italy's best or at least he stands out more. That isn't boasting him as a player but rather its because there is not much competition as there once was in today's Serie A among Italian born defenders.
I hate to say this but based on your anecdotes, you lived on an entirely different plain from me in 2001-05. Nobody outside the US saw the Galaxy as a major club. In fact, MLS was considered a backwater. Who are these quality Italians itching to play in MLS at 25? If you have contacts over there and know of good players willing to come, I suggest sincerely that you talk to the MLS brass because it seems they are missing a hordes of talent. Giving you benefit of the doubt, I can only imagine you have encountered some polite players who didn't want to offend by saying they wouldn't play in your domestic league. Otherwise there is a case of gross incompetence in MLS scouting because I assure you, those players would be here if they were eager to come and had the ability. I think you misjudged the ability of elite players who have moderately declined. How about reserving judgment on players until they've failed, rather than assuming they're going to suck and retire before they even arrive.
Y0u didn't understand my point. I meant Europeans in general didn't really think them to be a major club or the league a top league per-say and they probably still don't beleive it necessarily, but because of the cities the Galaxy and the Metrostars play or played in, the clubs were synonymous with the towns. Thus all the good players who wanted to or even thought about coming to MLS , wanted to and still want to go to either the Galaxy or Metrostars/RedBulls and now NYFC which play in LA and NY respectively. If you go back and read my post, I was speaking of many Italian players asking me about wanting to come to MLS. They weren't national team players and some weren't even in the Serie A. Some were in Serie B but they still wanted to come here and they still do. Just because they weren't in Serie A and were unknowns or not name players to the mainstream doesn't mean they weren't any good. A lot of good players would love to come though. If the league paid the right amount or even higher salaries, they will come. Especially taking note of Italy's current economic state, I'm sure many players would love to come to play here. Some may have had the name and the ability but they didn't do much while they were here. At least I don't recall seeing this elite set of skill or that they raised the level of everyone else or of the league for that matter . Let's go back and look at the overage players who have came and failed. Roberto Donadoni, Lothar Matthäus, Adolfo Valencia, Youri Djorkaeff in NY or Andreas Herzog, Hernandez and Carlos Hermosillo in LA. I don't remember any of them doing anything spectacular and none of them set the league on fire from what I recall. Not sure about the LA players but I don't think any of those guys won a championship which is the main reason on why they were all signed in the first place.
I've followed Italian football my whole life and I've never got the impression there was this great reserve of players dying to go to America. Serie B is a better second division that people give it credit for but most of those players would prefer to stay in Italy than playing abroad unless it's financially worthwhile and that applies to any potential transfer outside of Italy. You're more likely to get an Italian like Cigarini for example than an Englishman of comparable quality. Still those players aren't pining to play in the USA - they'll take the money in some cases, that's the difference. English players get paid more than they're worth to be mediocre in England, so it's more difficult to get them. I don't see why we're talking about Italians though, if we want to get quality young players then we should try to start targeting where Italy gets them. Marquinhos was a reserve team defender bought because of a recommendation whilst purchasing Castan. He cost basically nothing and was on low wages, if we didn't buy him he probably would have spent another year or longer trying to breakthrough at Corinthians. Once we can start competing for a higher quality South American player is when the quality of the foriegn players will jump dramatically, not by signing top 4 league unfashionable players. MLS clubs not being able to sign these players without making them DPs to me is the biggest hindrance. It makes the level of scouting that a club like Udinese not a good financial decision because most of the players you identify you won't be able to buy. If the club sell them they'll want a fee and/or a sell-on fee, but many of quality players in leagues in South America don't make much more than $500k.
Yeh t behonest I'm really struggling to beleive the whole Italian players pinining to come to MLS in 2001 - 05, and I can tell you 100% that LA Galaxy were pretty much completely unknown in football circles until Beckham. Also if you really want to class Seria A as a 'retirement league' , how do you explain Inter about to sign Shaqiri from under the nose of teams from England , france and Spain.
I'm not saying top players ever were "pinning to come here" and never even suggested it. As a matter of fact none of those players never did nor would they ever think of it. I'm saying mainstream, middle of the road, average bottom first , second or even third division younger players wanted to and would come if given a chance. A good is example is Andrea Pisanu (who no one really ever heard of) coming to play for the Montreal Impact while playing in the 2nd and 3rd tiers. That was true then and its still true now. My point was then, even they when they are posed with an opportunity to come here , they will for the right amount. As far as Galaxy or Metrostars being well known in Europe or not, again, no one really cared then and they probably don't even care now. All people knew then and know now is NY & LA. This is why all those superstars that I listed chose to play in those towns only. I'm even on the phone right now with UK clients as I'm posting the UK and they are telling me , yeah all the old players know about and only go to NY & LA. I myself personally don't think Serie A is 'retirement league' at all. If anything , I still believe its among the tops in the world. They haven't won a CL with I'm mostly speaking in terms of what sports journalists with the Gazzetta Dello Sport , Il Correire Dello Sport and on the TV or rather the Domencia Sportiva think so.
OK cool, so this discussion is done. Serie A is not a retirement league though some old players play there. MLS isn't a retirement league though some old players play there.