Two bits of news for Tuesday: Boca Juniors' quest to find a replacement for Martín Palermo during his long-term injury layoff has come to an end with the signing on loan (with a US$1.5 million fee should Boca wish to make the signing permanent) of former Central and River Plate striker Luciano Figueroa from Genoa. Click to continue reading...

That is an overstatement obviously, but Italian football does seem to be hotbed of naive footballers with some extreme political views. I am not closely enough involved in Italian football to be able to prescribe a solution, but I can certainly detect a problem. AC Milan keeper Christian Abbiati is the latest player to declare himself [. Click to continue reading...

The new season is now a few weeks old in Europe, so I thought it was about time we had a look at the contributions of some of Argentina's foreign legion in the European leagues. So far Sergio Agüero and Gonzalo Higuaín have enjoyed great starts for the two Madrid sides in Spain, whilst in [...] Click to continue reading...

Arsenal's hopes of signing the next big thing of Italian football have flown out of the window after Juventus confirmed they look set to bind star young player Sebastian Giovinco to the Turin club. All this summer, there have been rumours that the Gunners were eager to lure 21-year-old Giovinco ... Click to continue reading...

Can Roma and AC Milan turn things around this week?  I think Roma will and must as Mourinho and Inter already have that 3 point lead which cost Roma the title last season.  AC Milan are having injury trouble already so Clarence Seedorf will have to fill the absence of Andrea Pirlo in the midfield and [. Click to continue reading...

Arrival of Match Day Three for Serie A fans will see several key players missing including, Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso for Milan (both injured), Massimo Maccarone for Seina and Sulley Mutari for Inter (both suspended), forward David Trezeguet for Juventus and forward Ezequiel Lavezzi for Napoli (both also injured). Click to continue reading...

This time he's drawing headlines for calling Italian football inferior to the English game.

Yeah, I'm sure that's going over really well over there. Man this guy really is one of a kind. Click to continue reading...

It was an outstanding performance for Italian football in the first round of UEFA Cup action, as all four Serie A clubs registered first-leg victory.  AC Milan adjusting to a non-Champions League season are full steam ahead winning 3 - 1 over FC Zürich.  This triumph couldn't have come at a better time for Rossoneri manager [. Click to continue reading...

The first of two goals he was to score against Geogia.
That was the best thing that's happened in Italian football of late.Here's probably the worst thing that can also happen on a soccer field if you don't look where you are going.
Gattuso's freak injury.He backpedaled his way into a hole between two dugouts during a training game.

Click to continue reading...

(first, sorry for the lack of posts the last two days, we'll be back on scheduled programming starting now)

Daniele De Rossi scored his first ever "doppietta" (brace) in an Azzurri shirt to give Italy the 3 points vs. Georgia. Italy now have 6 points for the first two games and have made an excellent start to World Cup Qualfying, despite their mediocre play.

Click to continue reading...

The Serie A kicked off yesterday with Inter, now featuring our old friend Jose Mourinho, being held to a 1-1 draw by Sampdoria. Italian football's reputation has taken something of a battering in recent years, but with five clubs all with reasonable hopes of winning the league, it is bound to be an exciting season. Click to continue reading...

Stephen Appiah, one more to add to the list of top stars wanting to play in Italian football. The last 7 days have seen the return of Andriy Shevchenko to Milan, the confirmed loan move of Philippe Senderos also a Rossoneri, as well as the permanent signing of Rolando Bianchi from Manchester City to Torino. Click to continue reading...

Being down in the southern hemisphere, and being relatively isolated, I think we aussies get a skewed view of the world.

Non-football example: the illegal immigrant debate (our numbers pale in comparison to the # of people going into Europe or the US). The local papers made it sound so heavy, when it isn`t. Click to continue reading...

This story is quite surprising because as everyone knows, the Italian football fans love each other dearly and never ever argue. Last summer there were some issues at an Inter - Napoli game due to some banners which were floating around the San Siro insulting the Neapolitans in the crowd. One particular banner said (above) [. Click to continue reading...

You saw it on Italian newsstands everywhere today under somber headlines; Chelsea 5 : AC Milan 0 , Hamburger SV 3 : Juventus 0. Never mind that these were meaningless preseason friendlies in which coaches experimented with new players and different lineups - Italian football had been shamed.
AC Milan took its lumps in the Railway Cup tournament held in Moscow on an astounding four-goal performance by Cheleas's Nicolas Anelka. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool's new signing from Udinese, Andrea Dossena, has told the club's fans they needn't fear an outbreak of Italian-style catenaccio defence next season.

Italian football sets the benchmark by which defensive excellence is measured, with the catenaccio blanket-style defence perfected in the 1960s as the bedrock of the 1-0 win and forever associated with Serie A, even though things have evolved and been refined since then.

Click to continue reading...

My favourite Canberra Times journo Merryn Sherwood had the scoop on the movements of Carl Valeri. Read on in case you missed it.

Carl off to Serie A? Prefer he went to Celtic but Serie A would be a great move for him.

SOCCER
By Merryn Sherwood
Canberra's Carl Valeri has at least four Serie A Italian soccer clubs interested in signing him for next season, but the 5million euro transferprice that his Serie B club Grosseto is demanding is proving an obstacle. Click to continue reading...

Ah, late July. The Euros are over. The Olympics haven't started. Europe is embroiled in goofy transfer crises. Liverpool is busy stacking its reserve team with Swiss defenders and French teenagers. All the big clubs are off playing Guangzhou or someone. West Ham is playing the MLS All-Stars while the Inter-City Firm takes the measure of the Columbus casuals. Click to continue reading...

The Italian police unfortunately stopped Italian football club Lazio from gaining the owners they deserve. Current Lazio club president Giorgio Chinaglia has been the run from Italian cops in the U.S. since 2006 for some financial shenanigans. Now the Casalesi clan in the Camorra (an organized crime group, basically Naples' version of Sicily's Cosa Nostra) tried to buy Lazio with laundered money. Click to continue reading...

So the saying goes, and so it's proven this weekend. Germán Denis has moved clubs and continents, joining Ezequiel Lavezzi at Napoli, and is scoring as freely as ever in pre-season for his new side. He got a hat-trick in his first appearance (as did Lavezzi last year, funnily enough) and scored again on Sunday [. Click to continue reading...

Mauro Zárate is the latest addition to Lazio's squad for the next season. The Roman club, who finished 12th in the 2007-2008 Serie A campaign, have signed former Vélez and Birmingham City striker Zárate on a season-long loan deal from the club who currently hold his registration, Qatari club Al-Sadd. Click to continue reading...

-
On QPR Italia Blog, QPR's new signing, Emmanuel Jorge Ledesma interviewed speaking about Genoa, Italian football and QPR: Intervista a Ledesma: "Al QPR col Genoa nel cuore" and a Web translation


PFA's Give Me Football/Mark Shail - Q&A WitH Paul Furlong
He may be turning 40 in October, but new Southend signing Paul Furlong says he still has the hunger and desire to be a success at Roots Hall. Click to continue reading...

ROME (AP)—Marcello Lippi gave up a life of leisure to return as Italy's national team coach, less than two years after guiding the Azzurri to their fourth World Cup title.

"Naturally, I'm very happy to pick up where I left off. But picking up where I left off also means that the Euros didn't go so great, or I would still be on the beach in Viareggio," the well-tanned Lippi said at a news conference Tuesday, referring to his hometown on the Tuscan seaside. Click to continue reading...

Unfortunately for fans of the Azzurri, Italy´s EURO 2008 campaign is now little more than a distant and shabby memory. While the nation licks its wounds, our resident Italian football correspondant Henry N. consoles himself by taking one last look back at the 2007/2008 Serie A campaign and compiling his Team of the Season: GK: Sebastian FREY (Fiorentina) Click to continue reading...

Following Spain's dramatic penalty victory over Italy yesterday, Soccerphile spoke to two of Europe's most respected football writers, respective experts on the countries in the Vienna quarter-final clash.

GUILLEM BALAGUE is a familiar face in the UK media. London correspondent for Spanish football daily AS and Sky Sports' regular Spanish football expert, Balague has written for a variety of publications and pens a weekly European football column in London's Metro. Click to continue reading...

Juventus are set to make their first official move for Xabi Alonso this week after the player hinted he fancied a move to Italy.

And Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is hopeful that his £16million valuation will be matched as he continues his quest to maximise his assets to build more transfer funds. Click to continue reading...

Everybody has their bogey team, and so it has been for Spain against Italy for almost ninety years. No competitive wins against them since 1920, and the massive feeling of injustice brought about by the 1994 World Cup. Of all the teams that they could possibly have been drawn against in the quarter-finals, Italy was the only one that could have given this resurgent Spanish team cause for serious psychological concern. Click to continue reading...

Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso has spoken of his "fascination" with Italian football as speculation over his mooted transfer to Juventus continues apace.

The Liverpool playmaker is part of the Spain squad preparing to face Italy in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008 on Sunday, a match during which Alonso could come face to face with a number of future team-mates at the Bianconeri. Click to continue reading...

"We simply cannot compete with certain figures anymore.

"I cannot ignore the fact Italian football is now in fourth position in Europe behind England, Spain and Germany.

"Manchester City have offered Ronaldinho £9.5m a year.

"We can only compete with that if Barcelona give him away for free. Click to continue reading...

Leandro Lázzaro apologised on Thursday for his comments the previous day about Juan Sebastián Verón, which probably wasn't an unwise thing to do, but might not be enough to keep him at Estudiantes when next season begins. Another player looking likely to move clubs is Internazionale striker Hernán Crespo, who's reportedly talked to Milan manager [. Click to continue reading...

There's nothing goalkeepers dread more than 35° heat on Soccer Sunday. You're likely scratching your head wondering why I'd be complaining seeing as I'm the keeper and we, as keepers, tend to do a lot of standing around and looking handsome as hell. Allow me to enlighten you to the goings-on in my little world. Click to continue reading...

Diego Simeone's management career thus far has been marked by one particular trait: all his teams have included one midfielder around whom the side's play is based, who operates from deep and pulls the strings. At Estudiantes, it was Juan Sebastián Verón. At River Plate, if El Cholo gets his wish, it could soon be [. Click to continue reading...

It's been a mixed pre-Christmas weekend for Argentine footballers in Europe. On the good side, we had Gabriel Heinze and Fernando Gago included in the Real Madrid side who beat Barcelona 1-0 in the Camp Nou, and the irony of two ex-River Plate players, Julio Cruz and Esteban Cambiasso, scoring to down the side who [. Click to continue reading...

With the top three tiers in Argentine football having broken up for the summer (speaking of which the lower division results service will make a belated return tomorrow for Primeras C and D), the main focus for Argentine fans this weekend was on their Europe-based players. In England, Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano found themselves [. Click to continue reading...

South America's grip on the Club World Cup tournament was broken in the revamped competition's third edition on Sunday, with European champions A.C. Milan running out 4-2 winners over Boca in easily the most entertaining final since the tournament was re-launched in 2005. Click to continue reading...