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Extended Clip - Is Nicolo Zaniolo Throwing Away His Career Like Mario Balotelli?
1.3k Plays3 years ago
Nicolo Zaniolo has been frozen out of the squad at Roma and risks never playing for the club again after a chaotic few days during which he rejected a transfer to Bournemouth. Is he throwing away his career like Mario Balotelli did?
This is a clip from the weekly Thursday episode of the Italian Football Podcast.
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Transcript
Introduction to The Italian Football Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Italian Football Podcast.
Zaniolo's Transfer Drama Begins
00:00:06
Speaker
So, Nicola Zeniola, his situation has been complete chaos. He, you know, like a soap opera, like an Italian soap opera that you only get in Italy. Just to give a little recap, he put in a transfer request to leave in the last week or so of the window. He hasn't been playing Roma's last few games.
00:00:33
Speaker
He rejected a move to Bournemouth, who were the only club to put in a really concrete offer that satisfied
Rejections and Regrets
00:00:41
Speaker
Roma. Roma wanted to sell, Roma wanted
00:00:47
Speaker
a big cash sum, they wanted guarantees. He did get loan offers from the likes of Milan, from Leeds, from Everton, but these were with options to buy, and there was no guarantees for Roma, so they were all rejected by Roma. But Zanyola, he didn't want to move to Bournemouth initially. He did then kind of have a change of heart when it was too late, but he refused, originally refused to move to Bournemouth, who then went and signed Traore from Sassuolo instead.
Zaniolo vs. Roma Fans
00:01:18
Speaker
and what that's led to is it's led to Zagnolo basically being frozen out of the setup at Roma. The club have made it pretty clear Jose Mourinho, Thiago Pinto, that he basically won't play for the club again. He's become enemy number one really with the Roma fans and he even had to call the police a few days ago because the Roma supporters
00:01:43
Speaker
like came to his house. He then basically had to flee his own house to go back to Las Betsia, which is where his family are. And he hasn't trained for days. And, you know, it looked like Zagnolo would, yeah, face the rest of the season sitting in the stands, would never play again for Roma this season, at least. Even reports that he threatened to sue the club, reports that Roma removed his name and his photograph from the locker room.
Legal Threats and Reconciliation Attempts
00:02:13
Speaker
So a complete mess, a complete chaos. And we hope that there is a resolution to this. Zanyola has offered something to an olive branch. He wrote an open letter to Roma, basically urging them to let him back into the fold. We will see if that happens.
Roma's Professionalism in Handling Player Issues
00:02:44
Speaker
He you know, he I think neither side come out of this very well Roma I think do have to take some share of the blame, you know, they're public statements from Mourinho from Pinto I think that certainly didn't help them at it certainly helped to incite a pylon and the kind of the aggression that we've seen from some fans towards annualo and you know clubs have to be very wary of this note and
00:03:07
Speaker
whoever is in the wrong, whoever started it, maybe it probably wasn't, you know, we know what Zanyol was like, but you can't do things like that. I mean, I know from a personal experience, if everyone remembers what happened when I was when I criticized Dejan Kulesevsky last year on social media, Kulesevsky then then
00:03:28
Speaker
basically incited aggression towards me by doing a targeted social post at me, and I got a pile on. And it's not nice. I mean, for me personally, it didn't bother me. But obviously, Zagnolo, he's been very affected by this. And you can see that. So clubs have to bear that in mind. And I think that this is the second time Roma have done this. They did the same with Rick Karsdorf as well.
00:03:55
Speaker
and it just kind of shows a lack of professionalism from Roma as a club and you know it kind of leads to it only worsens matters you know because Roma can't win out of this so I do hope that there's a resolution but at the same time at the same time you know Zagnolo has to look at himself and
Zaniolo's Future and Comparisons to Balotelli
00:04:15
Speaker
You know, it's very, very sad because this is a really special natural talent. And the injuries, of course, have affected him badly. And we hope, we pray that he gets over those injuries and he becomes something close to the player that it looked like he was going to become. But leaving the injuries aside, you know, just Sanjolo, his whole professionalism, the way that he behaves,
00:04:39
Speaker
He risks becoming the new Mario Balotelli. You know, Balotelli, when he burst into the scene, like Zagnolo, he was a wonder kid, a superstar in the making. Seemed like he had everything to become a superstar, one of the best players in the world. And Balotelli threw it all away because of his lack of professionalism, his personality, his attitude. And, you know, Zagnolo,
00:05:06
Speaker
He needs to sort himself out and this isn't good either for his club career, but also for his Italy national team prospects. If he's not playing for Roma now, there's no chance of him getting a recall for the end of this season, the Euro qualifiers start.
00:05:24
Speaker
There's the Nations League semis in the end of the season as well. Roberto Mancini has even gone out publicly and says how much he believes in Zagnolo, lucky to do for Balotelli, and said that he hopes that 2023, said it at the start of January, he hopes 2023 will be his year of return.
00:05:43
Speaker
But obviously, you know, the way that Zanyolo is behaving, you know, there is the very, very real risk that he will be another Mario Balotelli.