Italy face Germany in the Euro 2012 semi-final in Warsaw and whilst all the attention is bound to focus on Andrea Pirlo or the charismatic character that is Mario Balotelli, another Italian striker has cemented his place as the number one choice, in a battle against true adversity.
Antonio Cassano (pictured) turns 30 within the next month and he has had a colourful career which has involved issues with many managers, weight gain and petulant tantrums.
Last season, his life changed forever and so seems has his outlook. The wildness seen so often in his teenage years has gone through a traumatic experience and has produced an incredible fightback from the brink.
Heart operation
Antonio Cassano’s life took a significant change in October 2011.
Shortly after his AC Milan team had made the short flight back from a hard fought Serie A triumph over one of his former clubs AS Roma, Cassano was taken ill.
He complained of finding it difficult to speak or move and was rushed to hospital where more than his football career was at stake.
On 2 November 2011, Milan confirmed that Cassano had suffered ischemic-based cerebral damage. In simpler terms, he’d had a minor stroke. Despite the club’s belief that the damage was only temporary, Cassano required minor and risky heart surgery.
He was warned that he might never play football again by the doctors. Only days before this life-changing experience, Cassano had told media outlets in Italy that playing football had left him exhausted and he planned to retire in 2014.
As the Rossoneri flew out to Belarus to play a Champions League group match with BATE Borisov, Cassano was in hospital, with his football career in severe jeopardy and his long-term future beyond playing professionally looking insecure.
As he prepared for his biggest test yet, it probably gave him time to reflect on a career where his potential has been masked by his moody attitude that have often got him into trouble.
Expensive teenager
Antonio Cassano broke into the first team of his hometown club Bari in 1999, scoring six times in two years as a youngster.
The Serie A champions at the time were AS Roma and at just 19, Cassano transferred to the Stadio Olimpico for 30 million euros, making him football’s most expensive teenager.
He was signed by former England boss Fabio Capello and the pair never got on, as Cassano’s immaturity riled the coach.
They clashed over training schedules and selection policy and Capello actually invented a word for his many episodes of recklessness. He called them “Cassanatas” and they became part of the football vocabulary in Italy.
It wasn’t just Capello who couldn’t stand him and he was on borrowed time when both Luigi Delneri, Roma’s third coach of an exasperating 2004/05 season for the club dropped him into the reserves and he had a high-profile spat with Roma’s king, Francesco Totti.
When he refused to sign a new contract, Roma sold him to Spanish giants Real Madrid for a meagre £5 million in January 2006.
The man who had come to note in England with two well-taken goals against Arsenal in the second group phase of the 2002/03 Champions League had the chance of a new start. Instead, his arrogance ruined his time at the Bernabeu.
Madrid madness
It started well at Real with a goal in a Copa del Rey match on his debut against Real Betis. However the club were angered with Cassano’s poor eating habits and the amount of excessive weight he was putting on.
Madrid fined him for every single pound he put on and when Capello became manager in the summer of 2006, the experience of playing abroad became a total nightmare.
Capello dropped David Beckham and Ronaldo and whilst both worked their way back into the starting 11, Cassano had no hope.
He became a nuisance, got injured and had more disputes with the uncompromising Capello. In two frustrating seasons with the La Liga side, he scored only two goals in 19 games.
Real Madrid cut their losses and moved him onto Sampdoria, initially on a loan deal in 2007 where he took on the unique squad number of 99, a number he still has at the San Siro with Milan.
He took a liking on his return to Serie A, netting ten times in 22 matches and encouraging the Blucerchiati to sign him on a permanent basis.
Settling well initially, it looked like Cassano had finally found a home but hot tempers were never far away.
Verbal spat
In March 2008, Cassano had another of his tantrums in a Serie A match between Sampdoria and Torino.
He was harshly sent off but then lost the plot. He ripped his shirt off on the pitch, threw it at the referee and had to be calmed down by the opposition players. It didn’t end there as he gestured crazy signals at the ref from the touchline before being sent down the tunnel.
A video of his antics might have earned over two million hits on YouTube but the Italian authorities took a dim view and handed him a five match ban.
His time at Sampdoria also ended acrimoniously after a verbal spat with the club’s chairman Riccardo Garrone. The pair traded insults before he was suspended.
Milan took a gamble on him and he joined them in January 2011, where he seems to have calmed down at club level.
On an international basis, Cassano’s club antics meant that in just eight years, he had only made 20 appearances for Italy.
Marcelo Lippi couldn’t stand the sight of him and excluded him from both the winning 2006 World Cup squad and the abject team that finished bottom of a routine group four years later in South Africa.
He did score twice at Euro 2004 and also played at Euro 2008 under Roberto Donadoni but made little impact in the latter competition.
A remarkable return
When he signed a three year deal with Milan, Cassano agreed to take a substantial wage cut in the process, which is refreshing to hear given some of the ridiculous wages given out to players today.
He made his debut in a match with Cagliari in January 2011 and the supporters loved him quickly, helped by a crucial goal in his first Milan derby against Inter.
With the goalscoring form of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Brazilian star Pato and Robinho having finally found a place to be settled, Cassano has had to make a place on the bench with the Rossoneri quite a regular occurrence.
When you think of Ibrahimovic and Robinho’s wild mood swings, manager Massimiliano Allegri seems to have no problem dealing with three strikers who can offer regular headaches at the best of times.
In April 2012, Antonio Cassano made an emotional return to the football field in a match against Fiorentina. Later in the month, he scored twice and set up a goal in Milan’s 4-1 win over Siena.
Although they just fell short of the Serie A title this time around, Cassano’s mission was accomplished and he was selected by Italian boss Cesare Prandelli for the Euro 2012 challenge.
Prandelli’s faith was rewarded as Cassano scored a goal and earnt the Carlsberg Man of the Match award in the group stages against the Republic of Ireland.
Although fitness is bound to be a problem at this stage of his comeback, Prandelli recently said; “He is a great player to have, even if it's just for 50 minutes. You have to remember he's had months of inactivity."
Emotional outcome
The English game had massive shock which spread worldwide when Bolton’s Fabrice Muamba collapsed suddenly during the FA Cup quarter-final with Tottenham in March.
Muamba’s amazing recovery was a miracle and touched the hearts of many within the game.
In Italy, Antonio Cassano has fought back from the brink of adversity. In a year where Italian sport has lost volleyball player Vigor Bovolenta, motorcycling talent Marco Simoncelli and Livorno midfielder Piermario Morosini, he admitted in an Italian magazine interview that the heart scare had made him seriously contemplate his future.
"I was incapable of making my own decisions. My wife was very worried because I would sit on the couch and stare at the wall.
"I wanted to quit football. I said, 'I am done here, I am gambling my life.' When doctors told me I could play again, I cried."
Hot headed for sure but football needs characters like him and he has a story that would be inspirational to many.
Should Italy go all the way to Kiev and end up winning Euro 2012, it will complete an emotional fairytale story of fighting back from the brink for Antonio Cassano.
By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
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