Andrea Russotto – What happened to you?

Most Italian soccer fans should be familiar with the name of Andrea Russotto. As a youngster he was dubbed as “the next Roberto Baggio” and “Antonio Cassano with a level head” but up until now he has not even been close to living up to those names. His story is a bit particular, and for those of you that don’t know it here it is. In 2004, Russotto, already a regular in the national youth teams and a rising star in Lazio’s youth system, was approached by GEA World (probably the biggest Italian football agency, Marcello Lippi’s son Davide was the head of the organization and was brought into the Calciopoli scandal on accusations of illegally handling player transfers) who wanted to represent the rising star. The agency basically told Russotto that if he wanted to have an important career, it was in his best interests that he sign with one of their agents. Russotto refused the pressure from GEA and to get away from their continuing pressure escaped to Switzerland, where he signed for AC Bellinzona, a team from the Italian part of Switzerland that were playing in Swiss Second Division at the time (they are now in the Swiss Super League).

Starting the 2004-2005 season at Bellinzona, the 16 year old Russotto made 9 appearances and 1 goal until January, when he was sent on loan to Roman club Cisco Roma (then called Lodigiani) where he made 1 appearance the rest of the season. That summer Russotto then showed all of his talent at the U-17 World Cup with Italy, and many Italian clubs were interested in bringing him back to the peninsula. Treviso FBC, who had just been promoted to Serie A, acquired his services on loan but made him play with the Primavera side all season (with Robert Acquafresca). However Russotto did make his debut in Serie A that season as a 17 year old and finished the season with 4 appearances. Famed magazine World Soccer even inserted Russotto on the list of the top 50 young players in the world.

The following season Treviso extended the loan (although they had been relegated to Serie B) and Russotto finally started to show signs of a potential explosion. He made his Italy U-21 debut at the age of 18 (he has 9 appearances and 2 goals with the U-21’s to date) and racked up 32 appearances and 4 goals that season. Treviso extended his loan for one more year in 2007-2008 but even though he played 31 times and scoring 1 goal, Russotto failed to perform at a high level like the previous season and was used mainly as a sub. In the summer of 2008, he finally returned to Bellinzona, but it wasn’t a long stay as Napoli decided to take a chance on him. Napoli saw a potential superstar and decided to take him on loan for the season with the right to buy him in June 2009 for 3.8 million euro. However the young fantasista was used sparingly by both Edy Reja and Roberto Donadoni and even though he always did well and showed good things when coming on, he never gained the full trust of either manager.

This past summer, Napoli decided not to exercise the buy-out clause and therefore Russotto was sent back to Switzerland again. Despite remote interest from clubs like Udinese, Lecce, Piacenza, and Gallipoli, nobody took the risk on the 21 year old Russotto. Today on the last day of the transfer market I expected a club to take a chance on him at the last minute, but nobody did. For the 2009/2010 season, Andrea Russotto is playing for Bellinzona of the Swiss Super League (where he has the shirt number 20 and has already made 2 appearances in the league). It is a little strange that no club in Italy wanted to take a chance on him. It’s mind-boggling that one of Italy’s more talented youngsters is plying his trade in the Swiss Super League. But then again, maybe there’s something we don’t know. Maybe he has an attitude problem. Maybe he doesn’t put effort in training. We don’t know, and quite frankly I don’t think we ever will. Will Russotto ever explode? It’s hard to tell. His move to Switzerland definitely puts him off the radar. He certainly has the talent to do so, but as of now, it’s still a mystery.

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Category: Player Profiles, Players, Rumors & News, Serie A