GIUSEPPE ROSSI (SPAL) during the Italian Football Championship League BKT SPAL vs US Alessandria on ... [+]
Italian-American striker Giuseppe Rossi has signed a contract with SPAL, Italy’s Serie B club that last August was taken over by New York-based criminal defense lawyer Joe Tacopina.
After spending the 2020 season in Utah with MLS side Real Salt Lake, Rossi, who boasts large international experience at elite European clubs like England’s Manchester United and Spain’s Villarreal, has now returned to Italian soccer as a player for the Estensi.
“I’ve always wanted to come back, to feel a player again,” Rossi, 34, told me when we spoke at SPAL’s training center in Ferrara on Monday. “I got on the phone with Joe (Tacopina) when he bought the team, and just him saying ‘We want you’ kind of made it easy for me to pick up my bags and go.”
One Of Italy’s Best Talents
Born in Teaneck, NJ to Italian parents, Rossi is undoubtedly one of the most technically-gifted soccer players to have ever worn the Azzurri jersey, so much so that soccer pundits in Italy have previously compared his playing style to that of all-time greats like Alessandro Del Piero and Roberto Baggio.
Talent scouts around Europe were quick to recognize Rossi’s outstanding potential as a rising star: At just 18 years old, he made his English Premier League debut with Manchester United and scored a goal after coming in as a substitute for legendary Dutch forward Ruud van Nistelrooy.
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - JULY 4: Giuseppe Rossi of Manchester United poses with Sir Alex Ferguson ... [+]
A left-footed, agile striker with elite explosiveness, Rossi was able to combine incredible passing and dribbling abilities with a lethal goal-scoring instinct, featuring a unique set of skills that earned him multiple call-ups to the Italy national team.
Rossi spent a big chunk of his professional career in Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A, where he is especially remembered for his time at Fiorentina, the Florence-based club currently owned by Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso. Here, during the 2013/14 Serie A season, Rossi scored 16 goals in 21 games, including a memorable hattrick on Gianluigi Buffon in Fiorentina’s 4-2 comeback victory over the reigning champions of Juventus.
Overcoming The Injuries
Fiorentina's midfielder Giuseppe Rossi (2ndR) kicks ans score against Juventus' goalkeeper ... [+]
Due to his many career injuries, Rossi is often referred to as a player with enormous unexpressed potential. The frustrating stigma of being an injury-prone footballer, however, never made Rossi think once of quitting the game.
“For me it’s all about the dream: The dream stops when I decide it stops,” he said. “I’m the one that decides my own fate, I don’t want other people or situations to do so.”
What has always pushed him to recover from all those setbacks is a sense of duty and appreciation toward his family, who sacrificed a lot to see him realize his lifetime dream of becoming a professional soccer player. Even when he had to undergo delicate knee surgeries, his mindset rejected the thought of giving up on his favorite sport.
“It would be very disrespectful to all those people who helped me along the way, which is my family,” Rossi said. “It’s not about dwelling on what could have been, but it’s about focusing on how to get back to where I was before.”
Rossi’s Return to Italian Soccer
Giuseppe Rossi, 34, at SPAL training center in Ferrara, Emilia Romagna, Italy
After MLS’s Real Salt Lake chose not to retain him for the 2021 season, Rossi became a free agent. He spent the last 11 months doing individual ball training, working out in the gym and following a strict diet, as he waited for the right call. He admitted he could not turn down the opportunity to return to Italy.
“It (Italian soccer) is basically a part of me,” he said. “I still feel those goosebumps before games.”
At SPAL, Rossi has inked a deal until the end of the 2021/22 Serie B season. He wants to help his side secure a playoffs spot, which is the goal that Joe Tacopina set for his first year as the club’s president.
“I like what Joe (Tacopina) said, we believe what Joe said,” Rossi, who is the third-oldest player on the SPAL roster and the one with the largest international experience, commented. “We have the potential to do so.”
Rossi made his Serie B debut last Saturday, as he came in as a substitute in the 70th minute in SPAL’s home match against Alessandria. The Estensi, who have been winless for three consecutive league games, will travel this weekend to the southern region of Calabria, where they are scheduled to battle mid-table Cosenza.
