Jesus Belongs to Kaka

Our friend Sheridan Bird recently wrote a great article on Ricky Kaka', check it out here; great we'll wait, and when you get back we can start the post all over again.

Now, I wouldn't say this is a direct response to that article, but it did get me thinking. There is a dearth of talent in Serie A, a league that in my lifetime had the likes of Maradona, Ronaldo, Vieri, Baggio, Del Piero, Totti, Gullit, Van Basten and a slew of others in their prime, and the cupboard does look bare, especially for the sort of young talent that is inspirational and charismatic.

Other leagues have them, those young players that are known by one name, C.Ronaldo or Cesc in England and Robinho or Messi in Spain; in fact Barcelona is loaded to the gills with the sort of inspirational young talent, from Krkic to Gio Dos Santos, not to mention their older counterparts Xavi and Iniesta.

Why then is the Serie A in such dire straights? Is Kaka' the only one, and as Sheridan says, what of Serie A if Milan fail to qualify for the Champions League and Ricky takes a Spanish holiday?

I wouldn't worry too much. You could resort to the "It's cyclical, everything that's down, comes back up again", but it goes deeper than that. The big clubs, the ones that don't rebuild but just reload, all have transition periods where older players are led off to pasture, like Beckham leaving and ultimately giving his place to a lanky kid from Madeira, or Viera forced out so that a cheeky genius from Barcelona could find his place in North London. Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United have found their talismanic young players. Thierry Henry and Patrick Viera had to leave so that Robin Van Persie and Cesc Fabregas could shine. Paul Scholes and Ruud Van Nistelrooj made way for Rooney and Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho and Raul have seen their respective clubs look to younger talismans. Barcelona and Real Madrid have both begun the process of pushing out the dead weight to make way for their home-grown or imported gems.

In contrast, Italian clubs like Juve, Roma, Inter and Milan have all been reluctant historically to give their youngsters the keys to the Ferrari. Look at the case of Yoann Gourcuff of Milan. Highly respected at Rennes, and starting to draw attention for France, he plays in cup matches and in injury time for the rossoneri. What gives?

Which World Cup winner do you replace in that side? Pirlo or Gattuso are irreplaceable, even Seedorf is still productive, and even Ambrosini and Brochi have their place; all parts of a well oiled machinie. Things will change however. There will come a time that the shadow of Totti, Del Piero, Inzaghi, or Pirlo won't hide the brilliance of the younger generation.

Italians like Lavezzi from Napoli, Rosina from Torino, Pazzini and Montolivo in Firenze, De Rossi and Aquilani in Rome, and Palladino and Nocerino at Juve, all will one day be the focal points for their teams. South Americans like Alexandre Pato, Ever Banega, Falcao Garcia, and many others, have already shown interest in leaving for Europe. With places at the big clubs in England and Spain taken by their slightly older brethren, will the next generation of great and inspirational players go to Italy first? One can only hope.