On Her Majesty’s Service: Samuele Dalla Bona’s Desperate Demise

Whilst the Premier League has seen some great Italians join its shores, very few of them are actually made in England. That is of course with exception to Samuele Dalla Bona. As maverick an Italian as any, Dalla Bona changed the course of Italians in English football by swapping the Atalanta youth academy for the Chelsea one.

At the time of his 1998 move to London, aged just 17, foreign players in the Premier League was all the craze – especially Italians. But Dalla Bona was different. He played as a central midfielder and proved a prolific one at the youth level. With Atalanta, he’d worked his way up the national youth ranks to become the U-18 captain and in his first season with Chelsea, he was boosted into the reserves, where he’d score 16 goals for the second side, winning the club’s Golden Boot for the 1998-99 season and being named Chelsea’s Young Player of the Year too.

Everyone at Chelsea was excited to see Dalla Bona. A bespoke midfielder who’d swapped the Italian shores for the British and dared to do so at such a young age, coming into one of the most emerging teams at the time and fitting in right away. Many believed Dalla Bona to be the next best thing to come out of Italy, but what followed was unprecedented, and untimely.

Unprecedented because Dalla Bona promised so much at youth level yet delivered so little at senior, and untimely because he should’ve been one of the best Italians to have ever played in the Premier League, but for some already present names keeping a young and susceptible Dalla Bona out of contention.

Many expected much from Samuele Dalla Bona - the Chelsea Youth Player of The Year in the 1998-99 season, but things didn't quite turn out as expected...
Many expected much from Samuele Dalla Bona – the Chelsea Youth Player of The Year in the 1998-99 season, but things didn’t quite turn out as expected…

After making his Chelsea debut in the Champions League during the 1999-00 season, he would go on to make 32 appearances in the following campaign, scoring twice. Expectations on Dalla Bona were high going into his first full season in the Chelsea first-team and many forgot that he was still a teenager, who was playing in an ever-strengthening Chelsea side.

The likes of Gus Poyet and Dennis Wise moving on allowed Dalla Bona room in the Chelsea midfield that season, and in the 2001-02 campaign – what’d prove to be Dalla Bona’s last in England – would be his most fruitful. He scored 4 goals in 29 Premier League appearances but turned down a new and improved contract from the club. He wanted to head home to Italy and that angered then manager, and compatriot Claudio Ranieri, who dropped Dalla Bona into the reserves towards the end of the season.

Dalla Bona left Chelsea having scored 6 goals and assisted 3 in 55 Premier League matches. His performances and stats were improving every season and even when he left the club he was still only 21-years-old. He had plenty of potential, but for whatever reason, Dalla Bona just disintegrated after his Stamford Bridge exit.

Over the next ten years, Dalla Bona would become a serial-loanee – failing to really settle down and develop at any club and eventually coming to an early retirement in 2012, aged just 32. Dalla Bona left Chelsea for Milan in a deal worth little over £1 million. It was seen a good bit of business from Milan – a young Italian player who promised a lot. But as it was in his Chelsea days, there were better, more experienced players in midfield ahead of him – Clarence Seedorf, Andrea Pirlo, and Gennaro Gattuso weren’t budging.

He would make just four league appearances in four seasons at Milan. The majority of his time was spent out on-loan with Bologna, Lecce, and Sampdoria and after mixed to indifferent spells with each, Dalla Bona was eventually released by Milan a year before his contract was out. He joined a Napoli side looking to regain Serie A status, and in the second-tier, he rediscovered some slight form.

After a lackluster stint at Milan, Samuele Dalla Bona joined Napoli during the club’s mid-2000s dark ages and helped the Partneopei regain a Serie A spot (Photo: Ciro Fusco / ANSA)

Dalla Bona helped Napoli to Serie B promotion in 2007 and proved to be one of the influential players in making it happen. But again, as happened at Chelsea and Milan, Dalla Bona was overlooked – Napoli brought in a young Marek Hamsik that summer, along with Walter Gargano which left Dalla Bona in the doldrums.

In 5 seasons at Napoli, Dalla Bona made just 34 league appearances with the bulk of them coming in Serie B. He was close to a return to English football in 2009 when he was training with Gianfranco Zola’s West Ham. The move never materialized, however, and Dalla Bona subsequently enduring further loan spells with Greek club Iraklis Thessaloniki, followed by Verona and Atalanta in the 2010-11 seasons – with whom he made just one Coppa Italia appearance throughout the entire campaign.

The last we saw of the ex-Chelsea man was in the 2011-12 season – after his Napoli release he joined Italian league side Mantova and by now it seemed like an almost desperate plea from Dalla Bona, who subsequently retired after the end of that season.

Speaking to Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport in 2014, Dalla Bona said:

“If only I could turn back time, I would have stayed there [in England] forever. In Italy, football’s repulsive, particularly everything which goes on around it. The pressure, the mentality – I’m not made out for the Italian culture.”

I was very attached to my father and he fell ill in 2011, when I was on loan at Atalanta,” Dalla Bona explained. “I still had a year on my contract with Napoli, but I terminated it because I wanted to be closer to him, so I joined Mantova. My father died that October and I couldn’t cope anymore. I became depressed and I practically stopped playing.

Samuele Dalla Bona always had bitter words for the Italian football culture, ultimately regretting his early move from Chelsea to come back to his native country
Samuele Dalla Bona always had bitter words for the Italian football culture, ultimately regretting his early move from Chelsea to come back to his native country

A bitterly sad ending then to Dalla Bona’s footballing career. From the get-go, everyone expected everything from him. He proved so much in the Chelsea youth set-up and the fans loved him for leaving Italy at such a young age.

Maybe in another team, he would’ve succeeded. Maybe if he’d stayed in England and worked his way to the top with another club it could’ve been different. But he’s yet another name who fans will forever be wondering about, and one who should’ve achieved much, much more.

 

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
Alberto Aquilani’s Missed Chance at Liverpool
Everton Full-Back Alessandro Pistone and His Injury Hell
The Hard-Hitting Times of Gianluca Festa at Middlesbrough
Attilio Lombardo’s Short Stint at Crystal Palace
Carlo Cudicini Could Have Been a Top Star
The Rise and Fall of Middlesbrough’s Massimo Maccarone