The Kings of the Two Sicilies

By: Francesco | December 2nd, 2008

In the present state of modern football with the physical nature of the game becoming more important than the technical nature, there seems to be less and less room for the fantasista, a player that has always been the focal point in the Italian game. The fantasista is the player with sublime technique, the player that you pay to watch, the one that can change the game at any second. Even though we are seeing less and less of these players as the years pass, thankfully there are some left, and in Sicily there are two fantasisti that are at the top of their game at the moment: Giuseppe Mascara of Catania and Fabrizio Miccoli of Palermo.

Some of you reading this may never have even heard of Giuseppe Mascara. The 29 year old arrived relatively late to the big stage, only reaching Serie A for the first time when Catania was promoted in 2006. Mascara is Sicilian born and was born in Caltagirone, a town only 70 km from Catania. Mascara spent the early part of his career bouncing around amateur Sicilian sides, before being picked up by Avellino and making his debut in Serie B. He was then bought by Palermo (pre-Serie A) and was very impressive before getting injured and spending a year on the sidelines. Palermo loaned him to Genoa (also pre-Serie A) to get his fitness back and the Rossoblu had a bad year, finishing in the low spots of the table. Then Catania decided to take a chance on Mascara. Apart from the loan spell at Perugia in 2004-2005, he has been with Catania since 2003, and finally exploded in the 2005-2006 season, when Catania were promoted to Serie A. Mascara finally showed his talent and his qualities: he’s lightning quick, which allows him to speed past players, but you combine that with his sublime technique and skill and you have a hell of a player. At times Mascara can do things with the ball that other players can only dream of doing. His problem however has been consistency, and has been far too inconsistent to become a top player. However this season under Walter Zenga it seems he’s learned how to be consistent and it is showing, already notching 7 goals so far this season. Marcello Lippi also recently stated that he has been keeping a close eye on Mascara. The Catania fans have dubbed him “Mascarinho” (which is the norm in Italy, when a player is supremely talented there last name gets transformed into a Brazilian name). He even has his own Nike commercial. If Mascara can keep up his excellent play this season, he will definitely lead Catania to a great table finish and maybe even get to wear a national team kit, and who knows, maybe the summer may bring the big clubs to knock on Catania’s door.

On the other side of Sicily, we have Fabrizio Miccoli. Everyone should’ve heard of the diminutive fantasista by now. Miccoli, born in Lecce (although to this day he has never played with his hometown club), started his career at small club outside of Lecce named Casarano Calcio. After 2 years of impressive play he was snapped up by Ternana, then in Serie B. Miccoli was a Ternana player for 4 seasons, making 120 appearances and scoring 32 goals, and impressing many big Serie A clubs. In 2002 Juventus swooped in and signed the player nicknamed “Romario of Salento“. He was immediately sent out on loan to Perugia to gain experience and in his first season in Serie A Miccoli took Serie A by storm, scoring 9 goals in 34 appearances and making all Juventus fans’ mouths water. He also impressed Giovanni Trapattoni, and he made his national team debut (10 appearances and 2 goals to date). The following season Miccoli returned to Juventus, but had strong competition in Alessandro Del Piero, David Trezeguet, and Marco Di Vaio. Therefore he only made 25 appearances and scored 8 goals, which wasn’t a bad rate. However Miccoli wanted to play, and therefore the following season was sent to newly-promoted Fiorentina in a co-ownership deal. Miccoli had his best season as a professional, scoring 12 goals in 35 appearances and impressing everyone with his displays. However Fiorentina mysteriously didn’t keep hold of him and he was sent back to Juve, who sent him away to Portugal, Benfica to be exact. In 2 seasons with Benfica Miccoli became an idol to the fans, although he had some injury troubles. However in the summer of 2007 Miccoli wanted to come back to Italy, and Palermo decided buy the fantasista. Miccoli, despite having numerous injury troubles, showed his talent throughout the season and reminded fans all over Italy how much talent he has. This season he has been in excellent form, scoring 7 goals in 13 games and has put in great performances. For those unfamiliar with Miccoli he is a small player but also very quick and has world class technique. He also has a laser of a shot and has scored many beautiful goals. At times he seems to drift out of games but when he’s on form he’s a force to be reckoned with. We’ll have to see if Miccoli can keep up the great play this season and maybe force himself back into Lippi’s National Team set-up. (He also has a Nike commercial.)