Dinosaurs

Serie A boasts a glut of exciting young talent that Italian fans get to swoon over week in and week out, the likes Stefan Jovetic currently at Fiorentina always catches the eye. There is the former Manchester United player Paul Pogba. The Frenchman plays for Juventus these days and has been putting in some solid performances for the "Old Lady." While the newly formed Italian duet Mario Balotelli and Stephan Shaarawy looks to rebuild the fortunes of AC Milan in similar fashion to Marek Hamsik and Edison Cavani of Napoli. Its great that the Italian top flight has these wonderful budding stars but Serie A, for me at least is the place to see vintage players at the top level. While England consistently obsesses over how old Frank Lampard is and how long can he continue for, in Italy no such argument ever takes place. The likes of Francesco Totti, Javier Zanetti, Andrea Pirlo, Esteban Cambiasso and Miroslav Klose are running around like if it's the year 2000 and they are a lot players, on the Italian peninsula who have some how preserved their talents even in their latter years with this man being one of them.


Name: Fabrizio Miccoli  

D/O/B: 06/27/1979  

Place of Birth: Nardo, Italy

Position: Forward

Height: 5'6 ft

National Team: Italy

National Team Debut: Italy vs Portugal 2003

Club Team(s): Casarano 1996-98, Ternana 1998-2002, Juventus 2002-07, Perugia 2002-03, Fiorentina 2004-05, Benfica 2005-07, Palermo 2007-present

The Italian forward of the older generation is a special beast. Deeply loyal, an eye for the flair and full of gusto. The names like Alessandro Del Piero, Antonio Di Natale, Antonio Cassano and Tommasso Rocchi mean a lot to different people in Italy. They all are magnificent players and if you blink quickly enough one would swear that your looking at the same guy. They are all diminutive, tricky, goal hungry monsters, who have been plying their trade for a very long time who have their served clubs and national team extremely well.
 There is another man to add to that list who is just as short, just as tricky and just as goal thirsty. Fabrizio Miccoli deserves his purple heart for a career littered with goals and an energetic style of play. Miccoli took his first steps as professional at the Stadio Giuseppe Capozza at the home of humble Casarano in 1996. In his two year spell in Puglia the man from Nardo raked in 19 goals in 57 appearances for the club.      
 After his stint at Casarano, Miccoli took his talents to Ternana and the front man showed his class from an early age. With the side from Umbria, Miccoli scored 32 goals in his four year stay and amassed 120 appearances. Miccoli received a lot praise from people in the Italian game and eventually a bigger club had snapped him up. In 2002 the striker made the move to Juventus but despite his ability Miccoli only played 35 times for the club in his five years there scoring eight times.
 Miccoli as talent as he was and still is just could not oust the Juve cult hero Alessandro Del Piero in the starting line up. The striker was loaned out on numerous occasions, first was to the once prosperous Perugia. In his second time in Umbria, Miccoli donned the colors of Perugia 34 times and got himself nine goals between 2002 and 2003. His second loan saw the forward link up with Fiorentina in the 2004-05 season. In the 35 games he played for the Florentini, Miccoli was able to burst the nets 12 times. This however was not enough for Juve and the Neretini striker was yet again allowed to leave on loan. Miccoli found himself in Portugal in 2005 with Lisbon's Benfica where he spent roughly two years racking up 39 appearances and scoring 14 goals for the side.
 Realizing the Italian's ability Palermo purchased Miccoli in the summer transfer window from Juventus in 2007 costing the "Rosanero," around 4.3 million euros, with the club inking him to a three year deal. 
 Miccoli's career it is safe to stay never materialized at Juve but with Palermo the forward has really come to prominence. So far to date he has scored over 70 goals for Palermo and has played for them more than 150 times. At Palermo Miccoli has tasted European competition having played for the club in the old UEFA Cup. Now the captain at the Sicilian outfit the forward can say this is the longest he has ever been with a team. He has played alongside the likes of Edison Cavani and Andrea Barzagli and has seen some very good times at the club.
 The Italian's international career never really took flight, Miccoli has only ever appeared for Italy 10 times, the first of which coming against Portugal in 2003. It's really no surprise that the forward has had such a scant showing for the national team. In Miccoli's playing career the "Azzuri," could have called on the likes of Del Piero, Luca Toni, Antonio Cassano, Francesco Totti and Alberto Gilardino and at the moment, Italy are looking to the future by relying nowadays on Mario Balotelli and Sebastian Giovinco. Miccoli has ruled himself out of playing for his country again due being snubbed over the years  from men like Marcelo Lippi.
 Miccoli has had a wonderful career and where ever he went he a had a goal for his supporters. Palermo is very lucky to have such a versatile and competent player in their ranks and inversely Miccoli has found a support system in the "Rosanero,"that has allowed him to be considered one of the most premier players in Serie A. Despite the skills and efforts of the striker Palermo is going through some worrying times and currently seems cemented at the bottom of the Italian league and its hard to say if Miccoli can even save them now.

Fabrizio Miccoli