Not so sure how true that is anymore. It's been a long time. Besides, he never would have played in a World Cup anyway. He was always injured. But even if he was hated, that's not a bad thing. All leagues needs villains
La Gazzetta dello Sport has always been rather dismissive with Pepito. They're the ones starting all the rumors of "Pepito alla MLS" since long before he flopped with Genoa, but with the particular wording Italians use when talking of something that is kind of a joke. Poor Rossi. Not even all that celebrating when he scored against the USA could mark him as a vero italiano. Sic transit, I guess. The last: https://www.gazzetta.it/Calcio/Este...no-c-blitz-los-angeles-fc-3201757082099.shtml
I have always wondered what Italians or the media there thought of him. Since his peak years were in La Liga and he wasn't a guaranteed starter with the NT. I imagine criticism since he was a Yank?
But considering the salary cap in MLS, how often does this kind of thing actually happen? Seems like a team would pretty much have to know in advance how much they will be spending on salaries so as not to risk going over. I wonder why a bigger club in Europe wouldn't offer him a pay-as-you-play deal, as Man Utd did with Michael Owen. Seems like the best solution for a player with his sort of injury history. Or perhaps he's already received offers like this but simply rejected them. Who knows? Not for 2010. He was healthy and even made Lippi's provisional 28-man roster before getting dropped for the final 23 (I believe Di Natale was preferred instead).
Who knows is a fair point, but Owen's hamstrings tended to rule him out for 3-6 weeks, while Rossi's ruptured ACLS left him missing 6 months+, or even entire seasons. Owen's problems you can plan around - rest breaks for prevention, use him as an impact sub when he's not 100%, blood the U-21 striker, adjust the formation, play a winger at striker for a few games, etc - because he could be available for 60% of a season's games, even if that's not 60% of a season's minutes. Rossi's problems, you have to plan for - by signing another striker entirely. In that case, why bother at all?
Don't let Suyuntuy lead you to believe otherwise; in Italy Rossi is viewed as an Italian. See here for more on that: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/fu...back-in-série-a.1984496/page-26#post-35644141
I’m just proud my thread title survived this long even though he never had anything whatsoever to do with Bologna.
I can read Italian, including Italian slang. That's how I know many never considered him one of the ragazzi.
Looks like Bob Bradley was smart to pass on signing Rossi. LAFC is playing lights out without him. Meanwhile, Rossi is still without a club, and will probably be so until the summer. Maybe then he will finally lower his salary demands, and sign with a lower-tier team in MLS or Italy. Would still like to see him play again.
So Fiorentina has a new owner: an American-Italian businessman by the name of Rocco Commisso (great name). There's a decent chance he signs Rossi I think, given the American connection, and provided Rossi will accept a low salary. Also possible he signs some other Americans in the future. https://www.football-italia.net/138985/rossi-welcomes-commisso-fiorentina
Maybe this will lead to a series of Americans being signed, maybe it won't. If it does, would that be good for them? Since this is the guy who (still??) owns the Cosmos, maybe not
Always here. Nothing changes. My time will come! 🙋🏻♂️ #training power #field #nevergiveup #loveforthegame pic.twitter.com/w17VP5o9mo— GIUSEPPE ROSSI (@GiuseppeRossi22) July 18, 2019
From the framing of that picture you can tell he is not considered really Italian, but more like spaghetti-Os.
He was interviewed on a recent episode of The Cooligans. Interview is at the very end of the episode, about 30 minutes at the end: http://soccercooligans.libsyn.com/207-very-jersey-boys-w-giuseppe-rossi
Looks like Jersey to me. Rossi is quickly becoming the next Adu. He needs to go to a lower level league to rebuild his career - Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, somewhere like that.
He is probably not ready for it to be over but, it is probably over. NBC Sports, TNT, ESPN and BEIN Sports would probably all love to have him. Heck Univision would love to have him as well since he speaks Spanish. Come to think about it he would be in great demand as a commentator/analyst since he speaks English, Spanish and Italian.