Domenico Berardi (10 Viewers)

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Mark

The Informer
Administrator
Dec 19, 2003
95,899
#1



Date of birth 1 August 1994 (age 19)
Place of birth Cosenza, Italy
Height 1.85 m
Weight 72 kg
Playing position Striker/Right Wing​

Domenico Berardi (born 1 August 1994) is an Italian professional footballer who plays for Sassuolo, as a striker. In November 2012, he was linked with a transfer to a number of English clubs. In June 2013, he was described as "undoubted star of the [Sassuolo] side.
 

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tyouto

catenaccio
Aug 8, 2011
2,958
#6
Domenico Berardi was born on the 1rst August 1994 in the deep South of Italy, precisely at Cariati Martina, near Cosenza. He started playing, like many other Italian kids, for a team near his hometown, Castello. He didn’t really stand out and was contemplating quitting football to focus on other things.

At the age of 15 he traveled to Modena to visit his brother. After he played a bit of calcetto, one of his brothers’ friends, impressed by his skills, contacted Luciano Carlino, scout for Sassuolo, to tell him to take a look at this kid. Berardi had an audition, passed it and become a Sassuolo player, in the Allievi category.

In 2010/2011 he played 3 games with Primavera, the under 21 team. In 2011/2012 season he played 18 games and scored 6 goals with Primavera, competing with players who were 3-4 years older than him.

Meanwhile, the main Sassuolo squad, led by Fulvio Pea, makes an incredible run in the Serie B: it was composed of 8 players brought for free from teams relegated from Serie B to Serie C, yet they were able to finish 3rd. But Sassuolo lost the playoff semi-final by the hands of Sampdoria in two matches heavily conditioned by bad refereeing. It was the first time that the team who arrived 3rd wasn’t able to be promoted.

Sassuolo owner Giorgio Squinzi , embittered and very disappointed, meditated selling the team to get out of Calcio world. He then decided not to quit, but he didn’t invest at all: the team for 2012/2013 is basically the same, besides from the leading scorer Gianluca Sansone who leaves for Torino, and the new coach, Eusebio Di Francesco. The loss of Sansone is simply replaced by the 23-year-old Leonardo Pavoletti who was previously loaned to Juve Stabia and Virtus Lanciano and by the promotion in the first team of Domenico Berardi, 18 years old.

Pavoletti makes a sudden impact: 5 goals in 3 matches. He is a classical first striker, physical and cynical. He continued the season with a more normal pace, ending with 11 goals. But the true talent emerged early and hails from Cariati Martina.

Extremely elegant, left-footed, charismatic. He regularly plays as right winger in Di Francesco’s 4-3-3 but he was used at times as second striker or a central advanced midfielder. He impresses for his technique, his shooting abilities also from set pieces and how he glides true defenders. But, mainly, for his leadership. And he is only 18.

Every sources agree that Berardi will be bought by Juve and left a year at Sassuolo or at least co-owned. I hope that’s the case. But in my opinion Berardi would have no problem playing for Juventus or any top teams in the next season: he’s ready.

I know I will probably get some twitter mockery for saying this, but I’m going to say it anyway because I truly believe Berardi is one of a kind. At the age Berardi has now, Arjen Robben played 28 games for Groningen (6 goals, 3 assists) and was acquired by PSV Eindhoven (33 matches, 12 goals, 6 assists). Robin Van Persie collected 10 appearances for Feyenoord and 23 the next season, scoring 8 times and assisting time. Lionel Messi still wasn’t a regular starter for Barcelona: 7 games with one goal in 2004/2005, 17 with 6 goals and 4 assists in 2005/2006 and then flourished in 2005/2006 with 14 goals.

Berardi in Serie B (not quite the stage the other performed of course) scored 11 goals in 37 games and assisted 6 times. He scored a goal every 212 minutes, I think that’s not bad at all for a man who prefers creating rather than finishing. I’m really eager to see what he can do in Serie A even though we will have to wait because he is suspended for three games after a scramble with Fiorillo in the last dramatic match of the regular season when a tense Sassuolo held on to the first place to a combative Livorno who wanted to avoided playoff. (If you are worried about his discipline let me say that he had only this red all season along with 5 yellows and I think the disqualification is way too harsh)

I hope Berardi lives up to expectation but I’m certain he won’t flop. The impact will be rough of course as the defenses are more tight in Serie A (but not more physical than Serie B which is filled with butchers), Sassuolo will have to fight against relegation and will struggle to maintain his splendid playing style. But Berardi has all the required mental and technical skill to succeeded. For the sake of Sassuolo, of Juventus (?), of the Italian NT and because I really don’t want to be remembered as the man who once compared Berardi to Messi, mistakenly.
 
May 22, 2007
37,256
#11
Left it to the fucking deadline :D

He's suspended for the next Sassuolo game but after that he should be playing Serie A games. They could line up with Ziegler, Chibsah, Berardi, Marrone and Zaza at the same time.
 

Amer

Senior Member
Feb 13, 2005
9,773
#19
Welcome and good luck!

Have to say I'm excited about this one. He's only 19. Man.City was tracking him and he is certainly a bright prospect.
 
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