An article published in Lo Slalom by Angelo Carotenuto, later picked up by Repubblica.it, reminds us of who the players bought abroad under the pretext of balancing the budgets of football clubs are. Many of them are certainly not champions and have not provided significant contributions to the Italian teams they played for.
Recalling the numbers of this issue, as Carotenuto does, for those of us who are not deeply involved in football politics, is truly disheartening:
“The figures from the ongoing Serie A tell us that among the 508 players who took the field, there are 78 foreigners used so far for less than 200 minutes, averaging five per match. Another 28 remained below 340 minutes, which is the threshold for the minimum fraction of 20 minutes per match. Altogether, there are 106 phantom foreigners, arrived and forgotten, paid for yet intangible. They make up 20 percent of the total championship. This stoppage will mainly concern them, the ghosts of Serie A. More visible in the balance sheets than on the field.”
Gianni Cerasuolo on succedeoggi further confirms these data:
“In the 2012-2013 season, 368 foreign footballers played in Serie A out of 705 registered, 52.19%: 1 out of 2 players came from another country. Inter had 33 out of 49, Fiorentina and Lazio 23 out of 34. Raise your hand if you remember Facundo Parra (Atalanta), Uros Radakovic (Bologna), Erick Cabalceta (Catania), Allan Blaze (Genoa), Vykintas Slivka (Juve), Morten Knudsen (Inter), Pavol Bajza (Parma). One season later, 2013-2014, foreigners increased to 522 out of a larger base of 1161 registered: 44.96%. Last season, the number of registered players decreased (555), but foreigners were 304, 54.7%. These numbers, combined with a very concrete analysis, are contained in a book published by ‘ultra sport’ and co-authored by two journalists, Mirko Nuzzolo and Enrico Turcato, titled: Stranieri. It’s worth flipping through, especially for its highly explanatory tables.”
I don’t think it’s necessary to add that this strategy of importing foreign players represents the main cause of the decline of Italian football.
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