Azzurrini: Callups for Yet Another Friendly
(ASKLFKJLAFSLJK.)
God bless Ciro for his Empoli stalking, because he's become the first U21 manager to finally -- FINALLY -- call up the creative genius that is fierce little Argie Fernando Forestieri. Forestieri was briefly one of the many people cursed by being referred to as "The Next Messi" and has played very well for some younger Azzurrini squads, but his playing time at Siena and Genoa faded then vanished, and last season he went to Malaga on loan and apparently fell totally off Casiraghi's radar. He's back in Italy now, though, playing with Fabbrini (and Saponara and Soriano) at Empoli, and Ciro has evidently seen the light. HURRAH!1! *throws confetti everywhere*
Ahem. Um, there's also a couple other new dudes in the squad to face Russia: Pescara defender Marco Capuano and Lecce midfielder Andrea Bertolacci. Additionally, sharp-eyed readers will notice that Santon is back in the U21s. No idea what that means, big picture, but it can only help the babies, rights?
The full squad is as follows:Portieri: Colombi (Juve Stabia), Pinsoglio (Esperia Viareggio), Rossi (Atalanta);
Difensori: Caldirola (Vitesse), Capuano (Pescara), Crescenzi (Crotone), Donati (Lecce), Faraoni (Inter), Mori (Empoli), Santon (Cesena);
Centrocampisti: Bertolacci (Lecce), D’Alessandro (Livorno), Fabbrini (Empoli), Marrone (Siena), Misuraca (Vicenza), Romizi (Reggiana), Saponara (Empoli), Soriano (Empoli);
Attaccanti: Forestieri (Empoli), Gabbiadini (Cittadella), Macheda (Sampdoria), Paloschi (Genoa).
The team will start gathering tomorrow night and will train on Sunday, with those who have matches rolling up to Abano Terme whenever they're done for the weekend. The match will be played on Wednesday, in Padua, and hopefully it'll go better than the last time the Azzurrini played Russia.