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Few big foreign names join

Italians get richest fees and attention in Serie A

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Posted: Monday August 23, 1999 03:25 PM

Internazionale had money to throw at Christian Vieri because of increased revenues from pay-per-view telecasts. Adam Pretty/Allsport

MILAN, Italy (AP) -- The aborted transfer of Nicolas Anelka to Serie A underlined a changing trend in Italian soccer.

After years of stratospheric transfer fees paid by Italian clubs for Diego Maradona, Ronaldo and other foreign stars, only a few big names have moved to Italy from abroad for the upcoming campaign.

The record deal of the season involved an Italian striker, Christian Vieri.

And the richest personal contract -- of more than 10 billion lire (US$4.5 million) a year -- was signed by Italian star forward Alessandro Del Piero to stay with Juventus of Turin for the next five seasons.

Vieri, who led Italy into the World Cup quarterfinals in France last year, moved from Lazio of Rome to Internazionale of Milan for an unprecedented transfer fee of 90 billion lire (US$50 million).

Vieri will team at Inter with Ronaldo, the previous highest paid transfer from Barcelona at around 60 billion lire (US$33.3 million) in 1997.

Vieri's record deal was followed by the transfer of Brazilian star-forward Marcio Amoroso -- the leading Italian league scorer with Udinese last season -- who joined Parma on a 64 billion lire (US$35.5 million) fee.

Lazio and Juventus of Turin had been bidding up to US$35 million for Anelka, the 20-year-old French forward of Arsenal who's expected to become the soccer star of the year 2000.

Following weeks of weary negotiations, with the player's quotation growing day after day, Anelka eventually moved to Spain's Real Madrid.

While Amoroso will be playing his fourth season in Italy, the most promising newcomer to the Serie A is Ukrainian striker Andryi Shevchenko, signed by league champion AC Milan from Dynamo Kiev for 41 billion lire (US$22.7 million).

Shevchenko's transfer fee was relatively low as the deal was completed by the Milan powerhouse last year before Shevchenko's deeds in the Champions League and ahead of a dramatic rise in the cost of contracts mostly due to television rights.

The players' agents took advantage of the millions of dollars made available to the Serie A clubs by pay-per-view networks.

Beginning next season, kicking off on Aug. 28-29, all Serie A matches will be available on pay-per-view channels, with two games played on Saturday and the remaining seven on Sundays -- one at night.

Oil industrialist Massimo Moratti, the president of high-spending Inter, said recently he did not see anything upsetting in this year's cost of players' transfers and salaries. The Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano bitterly criticized Vieri's record transfer and called it "an offense to the poor."

"They reflect the current value of soccer's booming business," Moratti said.

AC Milan, which won last season's title beating Lazio by a single point, also signed Brazilian international Serginho to team with Shevchenko, thus increasing the number of its non-Italians to 12 out of a 29-man roster.

Internazionale and Udinese have the highest number of non-Italians on their rosters, with 14 each. Lazio has 12 foreigners, and AS Roma and Juventus 11 each.

Inter's newcomers included French defenders Laurent Blanc and Cyril Domoraud, Greek international Grigorios Georgatos and Yugoslav midfielder Vladimir Jugovic. Young Uruguayan Alvaro Recoba returned to Inter from Venezia.

Juventus unusually signed a foreign keeper, Dutch international Edwin Van der Sar from Ajax, to replace veteran Angelo Peruzzi, who moved to Inter.

La Juve also signed Nigerian midfielder Sunday Oliseh and Yugoslav striker Darko Kovacevic for a combined 55 billion lire (US$30.5 million).

Those who left Juventus included French veteran Didier Deschamps, who joined Chelsea, and Uruguayan centerforward Marcelo Zalayeta, who signed with Greek club PAOK.

In total, Italy's foreign legion amounts to 145 players with 17 teams. Keeping up to its tradition Piacenza will rely on an all-Italian roster.

Other foreign newcomers include Japanese midfielder Hiroshi Nanami, who joined Venezia; Yugoslav striker Predrag Mijatovic, who signed with Fiorentina to team with Argentine veteran striker Gabriel Batistuta; Colombian teenage star Johnnier Montano, who will play with Parma; and Brazilian Marcos Assuncao with AS Roma.

In trading between Italian clubs, Argentine virtuoso Ariel Ortega joined Parma from relegated Sampdoria of Genoa; two other Argentine players, Juan Sebastian Veron and Nestor Sensini, left Parma for Lazio which also signed Diego Simeone from Inter.

The only foreign coaches in the Serie A are Sweden's Sven Goran Eriksson, who stayed with Lazio, and Uruguayan Oscar Tabarez, who returned to Cagliari of Sardinia following an unlucky season at AC Milan two years ago.

 

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