A Sampdoria striker may provide the greatest threat to Shay Given's goal at Bari's Stadio San Nicola tomorrow night but it will not be the one most Irish fans would have expected. Antonio Cassano's prospects of winning another cap under Marcello Lippi look bleak after he was overlooked once again by the Italy manager. Those of his Sampdoria team-mate, Giampaolo Pazzini, are considerably brighter after he came off the bench to score on his debut against Montenegro.
"He seems to find the net with every touch," reflected Lippi of Pazzini after the 2–0 win and it has certainly felt that way in Serie A over the past three months. Powerful, instinctive and effective in the air despite a modest height of 5ft 10in, Pazzini has drawn comparison with a young Gianluca Vialli and not just because he boasts similar features. Eleven goals in 12 games since joining the Blucerchiati from Fiorentina during the January transfer window look even more impressive when you consider that his new team-mates had managed only 16 goals in 18 Serie A fixtures between them before he arrived.
Italy are not short of attacking options at present, even after Antonio Di Natale suffered cruciate ligament damage against Montenegro, but Pazzini's emergence is an intriguing development nevertheless. He was named Italy's Young Player of the Year by his peers in 2005 and scored the first official goal, swiftly followed by the first official hat-trick, at the new Wembley Stadium during Italy Under-21s' 3–3 draw with England Under-21s two years later, yet before his move to Sampdoria concern had been growing that this highly touted prospect had begun to regress.
Even before he had played his first senior game for Atalanta in Serie B, Pazzini was being touted as a future Italy international. Atalanta's youth academy is widely regarded as the best in Italy, having under the directorship of the legendary talent scout Mino Favini consistently produced more Serie A players than that of any other side, but Pazzini's was a rare group. He graduated in 2003 alongside the midfielder Riccardo Montolivo, since capped four times by Italy, and a year later was followed by the defender Marco Motta, also in the squad for tomorrow's game.
Both Pazzini and Montolivo were snapped up by Fiorentina at the age of 20 but the forward failed to establish himself as swiftly as had been expected. It was only in his third season at the club that he became a full-time starter alongside Adrian Mutu and even then his strike rate was little better than one in every four outings. Although his club reached the Champions League for the first time since 2000, Pazzini was quickly relegated back to the bench as the manager, Cesare Prandelli, spent €15m to bring in Milan's Alberto Gilardino over the summer.
That move prompted Pazzini to seek a move away but even he has confessed to "having difficulty believing how much I have achieved" inside less than three months at Sampdoria. Many reporters have sought to credit Cassano with the turnaround. The pair have struck up a close relationship on and off the pitch since Pazzini's move and were quickly dubbed "goal twins" by the Italian press, the same nickname given to Vialli and Roberto Mancini when they played together at Sampdoria. When Lippi failed to call up Cassano, there were those who argued Pazzini would not be able to score without his club team-mate.
The striker himself was not among them. "Listen, I score plenty of goals from Cassano's assists at Sampdoria but I've also scored some on my own or with help from my other team-mates," protested Pazzini. "When I have played with continuity I have always scored goals."
In reality, of course, the protests over Cassano's exclusion had little to do with Pazzini and everything to do with the lingering dream that one of the most naturally gifted players to emerge in Italy for decades will one day make good on his potential for the national side. But while Cassano, still 26, has played his way back into form and fitness over the last year and a half at Sampdoria, a new generation of Italian strikers has also begun to emerge.
Giuseppe Rossi, formerly of Manchester United but these days lighting up La Liga with Villarreal, has already won three caps and is expected to start against Ireland, but there are others besides him and Pazzini who will soon be vying for a call-up. Inter's Mario Balotelli, 18, has scored three times in five games for the Italian Under-21 side after obtaining Italian citizenship in August. Sebastian Giovinco, meanwhile, has been used predominantly on the left wing so far by Juventus but is already being touted as the eventual successor to Alessandro Del Piero.
For now, though, the spotlight belongs to Pazzini, who is expected to start against Ireland in Di Natale's absence. It will fall to him to convince the people of Bari, Cassano's home town, that both he and Italy can get by without the other goal twin.
