Antonio Cassano (born July 12, 1982 in Bari) is an
Italian football player, currently playing for U.C.
Sampdoria. He was transferred to the Italian Serie A
club in August 2007 on a one-year loan deal from
Real Madrid CF, both teams agreeing to share the
cost of his wages. Although capped 10 times for
Italian national team, he was not included in the
victorious Italy squad at the 2006 World Cup in
Germany.
He is a skillful, two-footed deep lying forward
known for his technique and dribbling, but has
acquired a reputation for petulance that has often
attracted more media attention than his ability as a
player, hence the Italian neologism Cassanata, which
was coined by Fabio Capello in November 2002 and
subsequently used by journalists to refer to any
behaviour incompatible with team spirit in football.
Cassano was born the day after Italy's win over
Germany in the 1982 FIFA World Cup Final. He grew up
poor in the old section of Bari, Bari Vecchia. As a
child, he always played football in the streets of
Bari and was picked up by an A.S. Bari scout and
brought up through the biancorossi's youth system.
Cassano's father left when Antonio was an infant.
Cassano made his Italian Serie A league debut for
Bari in 1999, against local rivals Lecce. A week
later, he scored a superb goal against Inter Milan,
one of the clubs who had courted Cassano before he
signed a professional contract with his hometown
club.
The top clubs in Italy each kept a close eye on
Cassano, and amid rumours of a pre-contract
agreement with Roma, he eventually signed for the
then Serie A champions in the summer of 2001. The
transfer fee of around €28m was considered by some a
huge amount to pay for a player who was still only
19 years old. Juventus general director Luciano
Moggi commented, "Cassano is a real talent, but €28m
for a player of his age is excessive. It's too soon
to understand exactly how much he is worth."
Cassano's first season at Roma produced only five
goals. As his game developed, he began to come to
the attention of the national side selectors,
culminating in a scoring debut for Italy in November
2003, against Poland. Cassano played for the Azzurri
squad in UEFA Euro 2004, at the age of 22. After
Italian playmaker Francesco Totti was suspended
following a spitting incident with Danish Christian
Poulsen in a group match, Cassano won a place in the
starting line-up and scored a goal against Sweden
and a last-minute winner against Bulgaria. However,
Italy was eliminated in the group stage on goal
difference. He was described by Giovanni Trapattoni
as "The future of Italian football".
