Despite his retirement from the sport, Antonio Cassano remains an entertaining act in Italian football thanks to his blunt statements and colorful opinions on Calcio. During his appearance on Christian Vieri’s Bobo TV, the 39-year-old argued that the career path of Fiorentina’s new signing Krzysztof Piatek demonstrates the weakening level of Serie A. The Pole found some success in the past with Genoa and Milan, before struggling for goals and playing time at Hertha Berlin. But his since his January return to Serie A, the 26-year-old striker has managed to score on four occasions.
Fantantanio also mentioned former Inter captain Mauro Icardi who isn’t enjoying his time at PSG. So does the Italian have a point?
Well, this is obviously a long and complicated debate, but let’s strengthen the man’s point by listing another five attackers who shone in the Peninsula but couldn’t replicate their form in the other top European leagues.
Andriy Shevchenko
During his time at Milan, Andriy Shevchenko was the epitome of what a modern striker should be. Strong, fast, generous and an absolute bomber.
After winning the biggest honors in the continent (including the Champions and the Ballon d’Or), the Ukrainian packed his bags in 2006 for a new adventure in West London.
Chelsea paid 50 million euros for his services (which was an incredibly hefty sum at the time), but it appeared as if Sheva had left his scoring boots at Milanello.
Perhaps, the striker simply aged fast after celebrating his 30th birthday, but for one reason or another, his time at the Stamford Bridge was an utter letdown.
Alvaro Morata
This might be a controversial one, as some would doubt whether we can truly consider Alvaro Morata’s time in Italy to be successful.
However, his first stint at Juventus (between 2014 and 2016) was by far the most prolific period of his career – at least for now.
As for his current spell, it surely had its bumpers, but it’s a still a more fruitful one than his previous spells at Real Madrid, Chelsea and Atletico Madrid.
Ciro Immobile
During his youth years, Ciro Immobile was the crown jewel of the Juventus academy. Although it took him a while to find his footing on the senior level, he fired on all cylinders after joining Torino in 2013.
This earned him a prestigious transfer to Borussia Dortmund, but it proved to be a forgettable experience. The Italian striker then played for six months at Sevilla, before putting an end to his underwhelming European expedition and return to Serie A.
The Lazio bomber now has three Capocannoniere awards to his name, and could be on the path towards a fourth. But during his time abroad, he only managed to score a combined 14 goals in the span of 18 months.
Luis Muriel
Even though he was born and raised in Colombia, Luis Muriel has been an exciting addition to Italian football since 2010, when he signed for Udinese at the tender age of 18. Since then, he enjoyed mostly successful stints at Lecce, Sampdoria, Fiorentina and Atalanta.
However, his time in Serie A was interrupted by a short experience at Sevilla, who splashed 25 millions to seal secure the services of the striker in 2017.
Although his 18 months in Andalusia weren’t a complete failure, but 13 goals in 65 appearances left much to be desired for a promising attacker who was supposedly entering the prime years of his career at the time.
Antonio Cassano
Coincidentally, Antonio Cassano’s miserable time at Real Madrid could be the best embodiment of his own theory. In a year and a half marred by controversial incidents, he only made 29 appearances for Los Blancos, scoring four goals and providing three assists.
Now it’s true that the Bari native’s failures were mostly due to his bad boy antics rather than his performances on the pitch, but whatever was the reason may be, the biggest Italian talent of his generation left his home country to join the absolute biggest club in the world at the time, only to return 18 months later with his tail between his legs.
This obviously did more damage to the reputation of Serie A and Italian football than any goal-scoring stats related to Piatek.