Daniele De Rossi: A Man Gone Awry

By: Julian | May 6th, 2011

Ahead of Milan’s important clash tomorrow against Roma, there has been much debate over who will and won’t start for each team. Ibra? Pato? Vucinic? One player who for sure won’t be starting however is AS Roma’s future/present captain, Daniele De Rossi. He has received a three match ban for an elbow against Simone Bentivoglio in Roma’s clash last weekend against Bari. Along with Simone Perrotta, who also received a three match ban, the player will miss the rest of Roma’s season, all for failing to contain his emotions.

Is that really how a model figure should act?

This, less than two months after another in a very crucial match for his side. Daniele was handed a three match ban for elbowing Dario Srna in Roma’s ill fated Champions’ League tie away to Shakhtar. In both instances, the phsicality was clearly born out of frustration, in moments of desperation, as the player clearly chose to wrong course of action. As his team needed him, he responded in the worst way possible. While Roma were a goal down against Bari early in the second half, in a must win game, Daniele let out his frustration physically; as the team needed to look to someone for stabilization as the ship sank against Shakhtar, De Rossi bottled it yet again.

Of course, this is hardly the first time this sort of thing has happened. De Rossi infamously elbowed Brain McBride in the face during the 2006 World Cup, which resulted in a five game ban that saw him miss every match except for the final. Oddly enough, that incident may have been the best of the elbows that De Rossi has laid out. Though the ban was the longest, McBride later praised the midfielder as “classy” for apologizing right after.

Fast forwarding to today, however, things have gone downhill. Daniele is no longer the feared prowler in the middle of the park as he once was, no longer the one-man midfield that he used to be. Family issues have clearly taken a toll on the player, who had to suffer through a nasty divorce amongst other major personal problems. The effect of these trials is clearly evident on the pitch, as his performances have largely suffered.

What’s next for the midfielder? It may be that a move away from Roma would suit him. He claims that he is unhappy at Trigoria and has had a number of poor encounters with fans over the years. It may seem unthinkable, unmentionable even, that such an icon should need to leave his beloved, but it may benefit him immensely. In a new club, in a new country, he may find fresh impetus to become the player he once was. And that would benefit all parties involved: Roma fans looking to take care of the man within, the man himself seeking happiness, the new club in pursuit of a great midfielder, and Cesare Prandelli trying to figure out what happened to what once was a stalwart.

Daniele De Rossi: captain? Sometimes. Role model? Hardly. A man suffering? Indubitably, and until that suffering is relieved, the once great midfielder may be looked back upon in years to come as a case of what could have been.

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Anthony

"De Rossi infamously elbowed Brain McBride ..... Oddly enough, that
incident may have been the best of the elbows that De Rossi has laid out"

Have to disagree, the one he gave to Srna had to be the best, it was graceful and probably the most powerful...highly entertaining
Comrade

Post suggestion:

It seems like Lazio are going to play their home games in Europe at Artemio Franchi and there is some row about it. Could you explain what's going on and what the row is about?
Julian

Sure, I'll have it up in a few.
KJ

Wow, ballsy move, Julian. While i do commend you, pretty soon the Gestapo, I mean, RomaChris will have you banned for questioning part of the deity?

You know he once posted he has a dildo engraved DDR, right?
JulianJ

I find your comments to be shallow and pedantic.
Drewsef

De Rossi is one of those players I always want to admire, and sometimes do, but then he’ll go and do something stupidly pointless or else completely disappear from a match that really needs him to step up. And it’s not like his moments of madness really compare to those of Cassano or Balotelli, but his is a position (both on the pitch and in the locker room) where being an inconsistent loose cannon is an especially bad thing. (Which is what’s so disappointing, because in some matches he’ll show that he has the ability and mental capacity to be an on-the-pitch leader, and then the very next match he’ll make you wonder if he didn’t drop a valium before kick-off.)

De Rossi actually gave a very weird quote after his Shakhtar CL debacle about his image among the Roma fans: “They used to treat me as one of their own, they would tell me to throw in another elbow, but now the wind has changed. Something here at Roma is changing.” I think that says a lot about where his head must be – why wouldn’t Roma fans be pissed at him for throwing a pointless elbow in a key match? Why should their support be a given when he doesn’t earn it? Maybe a switch to a club where he doesn’t feel entitled to that affection – where fans cheer him when he does something good and boo him when he does something stupid, and where the coach feels no sentimental hesitation about benching him when he’s sucking – would do him a world of good.

He’s obviously talented enough that I wouldn’t advocate dropping him from the NT, at least not permanently, but it’s clear that all that “capitan futuro” stuff was way, way premature.
vincenzo

Great job Julian

Daniele De Rossi really should think about joining the ufc, with elbows like that he could be champ in know time :P.Its sad to see what he has done to him self,I think he can be a great player at times, but then can do dumb things, Is it time for him to more on? maybe it really is time for him to go if these problems are missing up his career, maybe its better to get a new start some where else, he does have the skill to help a team and could for sure play on a big club, there are for sure many other teams who would want him.
Angel

Always have admired DDR's grit but this is becoming too much and too repetitive. If he cannot control his emotions in the heat of battle, he should be off the team for more than the 3 games, and get right with his state of mind. He seriously needs to sit down and atke stock of his life, professional and otherwise.

Can you imagine if in 2006, it had been Zidane insulting DeRossi; I'm pretty sure Zizou would be 6 ft. under as we speak.

No way he should be on the NT, either.