Il fratellino

By: Penny | July 9th, 2008

Atalanta have released Simone Inzaghi, for good behaviour, presumably, and he will be returning to Rome. It’s still not clear exactly what the position is about his contract, which, by my reckoning, should have ended last month. He is going in ritiro with Lazio, following that rather odd habit Italian teams have whereby they disappear into hotels before seasons and matches, just so the players can really get on each others nerves.

Simone hasn’t had a good time of it, the last few seasons. “Years of suffering, especially physical.” the gazzetta says. He has had long term health problems as well as injuries, and although there were occasional flashes with Atalanta last term, he didn’t score.

It wasn’t always like this. In his first season with Lazio in 1999 to 2000 he scored 22, following his transfer from Piacenza where he had scored 30 the previous season. Lazio won the scudetto (snatching it away from Juventus and big brother Filippo in the last game) and the Coppa Italia. Simone was also the first player to equal van Basten’s record of four goals in a Champions League match, against Marseilles, again something that has eluded his brother, who was foiled by a cross bar against Dynamo Kiev after scoring a hat trick. He was called up for Italy but only managed three appearances without a goal.

There was another good season in 2003, but really, since then Simone has slipped into the shadow of Filippo. The main reason seems to have been a depressing catalogue of injuries, including, rather bizarrely, twice breaking a rib by running into a goalkeeper. It’s only one of football’s smaller ironies that Simone, so much larger and stronger than Filippo, seems to be so much less resilient.

He’s not a bad player, in fact on his day he’s rather good. The gazetta suggest rather delicately that an ambitious Serie B side might be interested in him, and it seems that he would go. “I definitely would like to play.” he says, “My fixed idea is to play football as much as possible.”

In case none of you have ever seen him play, here is a link to a youtube compilation of his best moments posted by cnok, so you can judge for yourself.