Football Update: Italian Serie A
Italy, the former world champions, did not have a good year as they were eliminated in the Group Stage of the World Cup 2010. The defending champions had a great set back after the loss but after this loss; fans are moving on in anxiety, as the 79th season of Serie A starts on the 29th August, 2010.
The season has a heated start; it is followed with the most expensive transfer made by Napoli, as they signed the Uruguay striker Edison Cavani from Citta de Palermo for a fee of €17m. After the deal of €17m, Juventus closed two big deals, as they spent €15.5m and €12m for transferring in Leonardo Bonucci and Jorge Martinez respectively. Bari was unable to transfer in more players and had more players on loan. Its major transfers include Sergio Almiron (Argentina) from Juventus for a fee of €5m. He is the only permanent signing by Bari this season yet. Bologna also had players hired on loan but the Slovenian mid-fielder Rene Krhin from Inter Milan was transferred in on permanent signing for a fee of €3m. Brescia had only one transferred in this season, Greek midfielder Panagiotis Kone from Iraklis. Cagliari is concentrating more on their defence as they hired two defenders, Dario Biasi and Lorenzo Ariaudo. Cagliari made a major transfer this season, as they got Brazilian midfielder Raphael Martinho from Paulista.
AC Milan transferred in three players from Inter Milan namely Attalia Filkor (Hungary), Cristian Daminuta (Romania) and Marco Ezio. They also concentrated on their defence and made a deal of €5m with the Greek Defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos and they got Colombian defender Mario Yepes on a free transfer. This transfer season has been good for Genoa, as they invested lots of money to transfer in some good players. Some of the major transfers made by Genoa include Portuguese Goalkeeper Eduardo at €4.5m, Portuguese defender Miguel Veloso from Sporting Lisbon for a fee of €6m.
Lazio made two major transfers, as they got Spanish defender Garrido from Manchester City for a fee of €2.5m and Uruguayan mid-fielder Alvaro Gonzalez for a fee of €2m. Roma took advantage of the free transfer and got Brazilian forward Adriano in their squad from Flamengo, also the Brazilian midfielder Simplicio. AC Milan has taken the goalkeeper Marco Amelia following the expiry of Dida's contract. This deal was on a loan from Genoa and afterwards they transferred Storari to Juventus. Leece, one of the team that made its way to Serie A this season, had two transfers in from Schalke (German Club). One is the midfielder Carlos Grossmueller of Uruguay and the other is a defender Tore Reginiussen of Norway.
This upcoming season is exciting as 3 new teams will be playing in Serie A, two teams by direct promotion and one being the winner of the play-offs. Lecce and Casena won direct promotion, while Brescia won the play-offs and became the third team to enter the huge campaign of Serie A. After the transfers, the managers of the teams as well as the players are pretty much satisfied and are ready to start the campaign with all their heart and soul. They have to put it all in as they cannot afford to lose or be relegated. Totti (AS Roma) shows much confidence in the team and believes that Roma can have a super season, while others are pretty confident and are having good time at the pre-season matches.
Fans are really curious to see some good football and cheer for the newly transfers and boost their teams' confidence. Let's hope this season be the best Serie A ever had. The ingredients of a good season are already in, while now the responsibility for a real battle lies with the players.
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