++ [ originally posted by magosantana81
] ++
Wow! I was also greeted by the Juventuz.com president! I'm really flattered!
Again, I was almost sure that someone would ask me about our gifted playmaker,
Leandro Pipi Romagnoli, as soon as I said that I was a San Lorenzo fan. Well, as you must know, he suffered probably the worst injury any footballer can have, to break his crossed ligaments of the knee. I'm sure that translation is awful
. Do you know the exact English for this? To give you a hint, it's the same injury Ronaldo suffered twice or three times....
Well, this is the second time Romagnoli has suffered that injury on the same (right) knee. It happened in mid May as he was running after the ball (yes, he was injured all alone, no clash againt a player or something, unlike the first time), he went under another surgery the week after and since then he has been on recovery. Right now he's ready to start pre-season training with the rest of his teammates.
Yes, I was well aware that Romagnoli had been eyed by a lot of Italian teams ever since his first appearance in our first team. First it was Milan (which was said to be willing to offer 10 million dollars), then it was Napoli (looking after the next Maradona maybe?
) and finally Udinese, this year. You won't believe this but Udinese actually made an offer in the middle of this year (during the Italian off-season) while Romagnoli was still in recovery! This was a real surprise even to our own board because Udinese actually didn't have a clue in what state Leandro was, whether he could ever play again or not. For your information, last year the Servette from Switzerland was also interested in Romagnoli but was in two minds because after they made Leandro travel to their club to have him checked by their doctors, the results weren't statisfactory enough. As I see it, that was bullshit from the Swiss club, probably to allow themselves to make a lower counter-offer if you know what I mean...
The thing is that Udinese was even offering Romagnoli to continue with his recovery sessions in Italy. Now that I dig more in my momory, I think their offer was to borrow him for 1 year for 600.000 dollars. Leandro ended up rejecting the offer because he preferred recovering at home, with his family, friends and teammates. But what surprised everybody most was that they wouldn't be able to use him for the first 6 months yet they were still interested in him. Obviously, they still consider him a true star, regardless of his recent injuries.
Another club that has also showed interest in Romagnoli is Bayern Leverkusen. That's right, in mid 2000 they wanted to get both our playmaker (Romagnoli) and goal-getter, Bernardo Romeo, currently in the HSV (Hamburg). Also, Werder Bremen, Stuttgart and New Castle were interested but their offers were considered too low.
If I had to describe him in a few words for those who haven't seen him play, he's your typical number 10 playmaker with the best dribbling skills you can find! He can dribble as many players as he wants. Dribbling is not a problem for him. And when he's on the mood and it's HIS day, NOONE can stop him. Not even Gonzalo
. I tell you, not even Pablo Aimar has this guy's dribbiling skills. In my opinion, he has everything to succeed abroad. Maybe his only flaw is free-kicks. That is something he could improve...
I know you're probably saying "if he's that good, why isn't he already in Serie A or in Spain?"... Well, like I said, these recent injuries have kept him from bieng transferred before, after he won 3 championships with San Lorenzo (the Torneo Clausura 2001, the Mercosur 2001 and the Sudamericana 2002, in the final game of which he scored a real
Maradona-esque goal, taking the ball at the half of the field, dribbling five or six players, getting into the box and beating the Colombian goalkeeper from Atlético Nacional) and the 2001 U-20 World Youth Championship in Argentina where he started the team together with guys like Fabricio Coloccini (currently in Villarreal), Maximiliano Rodríguez (Espanyol) and Javier Saviola (Barcelona). D'Alessandro? He was just his subtitute. He had to come off the bench and played in the second half once the game was closed because obviously the coach considered him better. It was in that Championship where Leverkusen's coach, Toppi, (now Hamburg's coach) eyed Romagnoli. He simply said: "I've fallen in love with this guy". :dazed:
Buy on AliExpress.com
