Liverpool have a long history of world-class players and ranging from all over the world, but Italians have rarely graced Merseyside, or at least graced those shores well and Alberto Aquilani is no exception.
The club had some forgettable Italian names in their ranks – Mario Balotelli, Andrea Dossena, and Fabio Borini to name a few – all of whom disappointed during their spell at the club, and all would move on without leaving any lasting legacy at Liverpool. Of the few Italians to have joined Liverpool, none joined with as much expectation surrounding them as Alberto Aquilani, and none endured as torrid a time at Anfield as he did.
The now 35-year-old joined Liverpool in August 2009 and in 3 seasons at the club he made 28 appearances, spent 2 consecutive seasons out on-loan and left in 2012. So why didn’t it work out for Aquilani? The central midfielder was a graduate of the Roma youth academy. He could play in either a forward or defensive role in the heart of midfield and in seven years with the Serie A side he asserted himself as a very technical player, a typically Italian midfielder who could do a bit of everything.
Aquilani was a full Azzurri international by the time of his Anfield arrival, and he joined the club after Rafa Benitez had just guided them to a 2nd-place finish in the Premier League. Liverpool then were a club looking to lift the Premier League in time for the new decade, and along with Aquilani they signed Glen Johnson for £18 million from Portsmouth (the same fee that Liverpool paid Roma for Aquilani). That summer saw the much-loved Xabi Alonso depart for Real Madrid in a deal worth little over £30 million, and a sprightly, 25-year-old Aquilani was supposed to fill that void.
His first season at the club – Benitez’s last – saw him make 26 appearances in all competitions, grabbing a couple of goals and making 6 assists. The early signs of Aquilani were positive. He had a way to go to fill the creative void left by Alonso but for his maiden season in the much more physical English game, Aquilani held his own and repaid a small part of his price tag with some strong performances.
Liverpool though would go on to achieve their worst league finish in over 10 years with a 7th-place finish in the 2009-10 season, and that spelled the end of Benitez’s time at the club, and the end of Aquilani’s too. Roy Hodgson was named as Benitez’s successor almost a month after the Spaniard’s departure, but the future England manager would endure a rotten spell at Anfield – he was sacked in January 2011 after 31 games at the helm. The Italian made two appearances in the European qualifying stages of the 2010-11 season, before joining Juventus on-loan.
The Old Lady was falling far off the top of the Serie A having attained a 7th-place finish in 2010, and they’d achieve the same feat in 2011 with Aquilani playing 33 times in the league and scoring twice. His Serie A return had reinstated some life into his dwindling fortunes and Aquilani wanted to make his stay in Turin permanent. But the club didn’t go through with the deal and Aquilani returned to Liverpool where he began the pre-season.
Kenny Dalglish was the manager upon Aquilani’s return, and he’d just welcomed the central likes of Charlie Adam from Blackpool and Jordan Henderson from Sunderland, further pushing Aquilani down the pecking order. He wasn’t in England for long before he sought another year in Italy, this time joining Milan. His season at the San Siro wasn’t quite as uplifting as his previous with Juve, but he once again proved a solid player in Serie A.
Returning to Liverpool in time for pre-season, Aquilani’s permanent exit looked all but confirmed – he took part in the club’s pre-season tour of North America but soon joined Fiorentina for an undisclosed fee. That brought an end to what was a brief and contested spell at Anfield. Aquilani had clear talent and many think he would’ve become a top-player under the right management at Liverpool, but like so many gifted footballers who brave British football, it didn’t quite work out for him.
With Benitez at the helm, Liverpool played creative and expressive football which suited more technical players like Aquilani, hence him having an impact in his first and only proper season with the club. But Hodgson and then Dalglish played very different types of football to Benitez, ones which would ultimately end up in both losing their jobs at the club before being replaced with a contemporary manager in Brendan Rodgers – a player like Aquilani would’ve flourished under a dynamic trainer like him.
After a forgettable three-year spell with Liverpool, Aquilani went on to have a successful three-year experience in Florence – he made 95 appearances in all competitions and scored 15 goals. With what was his fourth club in Serie A, Aquilani helped Fiorentina to two-straight 4th-placed finishes, reached the 2014 Coppa Italia Final and the Semi-Finals of the 2014-15 Europa League. Yet again, the midfielder proved a hit in his homeland and it further begged the question of why he failed in England.
He was always a player who looked a bit homesick outside of Italy. Aquilani couldn’t quite adjust to the demands of the English game and his technical presence was much more suited to the pace of Italian football, hence his more prolific form in Serie A. He was also a prominent member of the Azzurri throughout his career, winning 38 caps for Italy, scoring 5 goals, and traveling with his national selection to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. His club career, however, became more nomadic as the years passed.
In June 2019, aged 34, Aquilani announced his retirement from football. After Fiorentina he moved to Sporting Lisboa for a season before heading back to Italy with Pescara and then Sassuolo, before finishing on an uninspiring spell in Spain with Las Palmas. After the latter’s relegation, Aquilani was released and left without a club for the entirety of the 2018-19 season, before calling time on his career.
Nobody will doubt his qualities as a player – Aquilani as a creative midfielder could’ve and should’ve been one of the best that Italy had produced. But England – or rather lackluster British managers – ruined his career, and we never truly saw the best of Alberto Aquilani.
Click below to read more stories of Italian players who tried their hand at the Premier League:
Gianfranco Zola’s Inspiring Love Affair with Chelsea
Roberto Di Matteo’s Managerial Greatness
Benito Carbone’s British Tribulations
The Turbulent Times of Paolo Di Canio
Aquilani should’ve stayed in Serie A.
Maybe he should have stayed, but one cannot attribute his downfall only to moving abroad. Even when he came back to Italy he still didn’t recover his form. To me, Aquilani looked like a player who was in his perfect environment at Roma, where he grew up. Once far from it, he found himself out of his comfort zone and just couldn’t cope with that…
Good points