The Explosion of Gaetano D’Agostino

By: Francesco | May 22nd, 2009

When you read news about Serie A you always hear about the big stars and how they are performing, but you rarely hear about other players that are having a good season. We always hear about Kaka, Ibrahimovic, Totti, Del Piero, Buffon, etc but we never hear about Consigli, Guarente, Sorrentino, Marcolini, and Padoin for instance. For those that do not know, Gaetano D’Agostino has been one of the top midfielders in Serie A this season and has definitely been the best deep-lying playmaker in the peninsula (yes, even better than Andrea Pirlo). At times the Sicilian-born midfielder resembles Pirlo on the pitch and this has truly been the year of his (long-awaited) consecration. D’Agostino story after the jump.

Gaetano D’Agostino was born in June of 1982 in Palermo and in 1990 entered the rosanero youth system. His talent was obvious and after finishing a season where he totaled 100 goals (yes, 100), Roma bought him in 1998 at the age of 16. Fabio Capello gave him his first team debut at the age of 18 during the Scudetto-winning 2000/2001 campaign. In the summer, his co-ownership rights were sold to Bari in the Antonio Cassano deal.

It was a good move for D’Agostino, as at the age of 19 he became a regular starter for Bari in Serie B and started to impress and was one of the most promising young players in all of Italy. D’Agostino at first was a pure trequartista who was best in support behind the strikers. He wasn’t much of a scorer and his best qualities were his excellent passing ability. While at Bari, D’Agostino became a protagonist for the Italy U-21 side, inheriting Andrea Pirlo’s number 10 shirt. D’Agostino was the main creative force for that side and they won the UEFA U-21 championship in 2004.

In 2003 he was brought back to Rome but could not break into the starting eleven as he had so many good players in front of him. He made 22 appearances in 2 seasons. In January of 2005 to get more space Messina bought half of his rights and he stayed on the next season as well, collecting 5 goals in 42 appearances. At this point of his career, D’Agostino looked like just another one of the young prospects who panned out to be average players. He was a good trequartista but nothing special. With Messina’s relegation in 2006, he was bought by Udinese.

D’Agostino didn’t make a big impression in Udine until Pasquale Marino took over in 2007. With his 3-4-3 formation, there isn’t any room for a trequartista to support the strikers. So to take advantage of D’Agostino’s sublime passing skills, Marino moved him into a more deep-lying role ala Pirlo. D’Agostino became a stalwart of the midfield for Marino last season, playing in 35 games but he was still adapting to his new role.

This season, D’Agostino has exploded. He spent the whole preseason adjusting to his new deep-lying role and started off the season with a bang and hasn’t stopped. His passing has been simply awesome and his long passing in particular is something to behold. He also finally found his scoring touch again, scoring 10 goals in 31 games so far (although some are on penalties and free kicks). He was also called up by Marcello Lippi to the national team in November but he didn’t make an appearance. However with the Confederations Cup just around the corner, don’t be surprised to see D’Agostino’s name on the Italy roster. Right now, he is the closest thing Italy has to Andrea Pirlo. If Pirlo goes down or is suspended, D’Agostino is the man that can replace him. Lippi would be stupid not to call him up (but then again it is Lippi) this summer and give him a run to see how he does.

Also, expect D’Agostino to move to a bigger club this summer. The Inter option is out because they just bought Thiago Motta, so that leaves Juventus. Juventus need a midfielder like him that can dictate the play and control the tempo of the game. At 27 years of age, he’s something of a late bloomer (but so was Luca Toni), but I’m sure that D’Agostino will be a quality player for many years to come.

D’Agostino compilation: