Sell Antonio Cassano? Over my dead body. How is that reasonable at all? Do you understand what that would do to me? All those years as a young boy when I played FIFA and chose Inter as my team in the Career-mode, I always bought Antonio Cassano, no matter if he were in Real Madrid, Sampdoria or Milan. Then, last summer, not yet a year ago, he actually came for real and I got to see him play for Inter, like I always hoped. Now he’s going to leave? After just one season? God, I hope not.
When I look at Antonio Cassano, all I see is a version of Pjotr Tjajkovskijs ballet-classic “Swan Lake”. Sawn Lake is about the prince Siegfried who falls in love with the princess Odette, but she gets cursed by the evil wizard Rothbart and turned into a swan. A swan with two sides. On one hand, the white swan, who is kind, innocent, and fragile. On the other hand, the black swan who is described as promiscuous and seduces the prince. The concept with this drama is the battle between love and evil, two personalities that the two swans are examples of. This svan is Antonio Cassano. On one hand the player who serves elegant passes to his teammates and is a fantastic footballer, spectacular goals. The white swan. On the other hand, impulsive and a hotheaded fighter. A grown child that can’t controll his mouth or his body. The black swan.
Cassano have always been hard to controll for any coach. Just ask the former Roma-manager Fabio Capello. Capello, who later joined Cassano in Real Madrid, a true potion of disaster. Which lead to the famous quote from Cassano that claimed he would rather walk back to Rome from Madrid and rejoin Roma rather than staying in Madrid with Capello as his coach. Not an easy person for Del Neri in Sampdoria later on either. Not to mention, hard to manage for referees. When it comes to Cassano and a yellow card, you’ll never know if he’s going to laugh, cry, give you the finger or put his hand around your neck. Needless to say, an exciting player to watch. What I find new for Cassano in Inter is feeling of the need to defend Inter. For example, when Juventus defender Leandro Bonucci criticized Inter, Antonio Cassano went out to the press claiming he could have joined Juventus more than three times, but refused because; “In Juve, they are just soldiers who can walk a straight line.”
It has surely been one hell of a ride for Antonio Cassano and I’m happy to have been on of his fans since I started followin Italian football. All the funny stories about him, he seems to be just as crazy off the pitch as he is on the field. How I would love to have dinner with Cassano one day before it is all over.
However, Antonio Cassano is way closer to the end of his career than that day in 1999 where he made his debut for Bari in the local derby against US Lecce. Shouldn’t we be able to see which swan that is more of the true color of Antonio Cassano? I believe we already have. In all of his clubs, there have been problems. In Inter aswell, but during this year, Cassano has not cursed out on referee (well, Tagliavento a little bit), no fights on the pitch, no water thrown in the face of coaches and no cornerflags have fallen victims for his furious foot. Of course, there was this one incident where Cassano provoked Inter-coach Andrea Stramaccioni during training, almost leading to a physical handout between the two. But who did Cassano handle a difficult situation like that? He apologized, he took his punishment, he paid his fines and he moved on. He apologized. Not like in Sampdoria where he told the president what he could suck on and what his mother could suck on and… I believe you catch my drift. I believe that Antonio really have Inter in his heart and values the chance he got at Inter, being one of the most important players this season. Maybe the wonderboy actually grew up.But not to much. The Wonderboy became the Wonderman!
Big Up to SempreInter’s own Axel Fridell for this awesome video!
PS.
Many of you might have seen Darren Aronofskys “Black Swan” with Nathalie Portman. A movie with a very tragic ending. This have cast a shadow over Tjajkovskijs work, which does not end in tears at all. Spoiler alert; The curse is broken and Prince Siegfried finally gets his Princess Odette, without even one feather on her and everybody is happy… Except for Rothbart.
