On the night that one of Italy’s prolific late bloomers Luca Toni signed off from football by scoring a goal against champions Juventus to help the already relegated Verona clinch a win, it would seem that Leicester were in pursuit of another late bloomer from Serie B, who has been raising eyebrows with his performances.
Gianluca Lapadula is 26 and has played for over 13 different clubs in Italy’s top two tiers. Di Marzio had reported that Leicester scouts were seen watching him play for Pescara before. Last night, the scouts were again present at the Adriatico Stadium when Pescara took on Lanciano. Lapadula, along with his teammate Gianluca Caprari, are subject to a decent amount of speculation as Juventus are rumoured to be following them closely.
The Biancazzuris
Pescara, or the Delfini as they are affectionately called, have an undistinguished history until recently before they contributed to the world of football gems like Lorenzo Insigne, Mattia Perin, Ciro Immobile, Juan Fernando Quintero and the remarkable Marco Verratti. Pescara are third on the Serie B table with Trapani, Bari and Novara close by, which means they have to enter a qualification tournament to determine whether Pescara makes it to Serie A next year or not.
Regardless of promotion, the right amount of money from Leicester, who are still trying to come to terms with their rags to riches story in the Premier League under Claudio Ranieri, will tempt Pescara into selling them their asset.
Another Luca Toni
A player of unknown merit, Luca Toni had distinguished himself as a prolific goalscorer scoring 20 goals for Palermo in 2003 for the first time at the age of 26. He would go on to play for Fiorentina and Bayern Munich and score 30 plus goals in the seasons to follow and also win a world cup in 2006.
The peninsula is no stranger to late blooming strikers and centre forwards, with Genoa’s Leonardo Pavoletti (27 year old) too breaking at the same time as Lapadula. Both strikers are of South American origin and are expected to play for big clubs next year.
Lapadula has scored 28 goals this season in 38 games in the second tier of Italian football to match Jamie Vardy’s 24 goals and 6 assists which helped Leicester write history just a few days ago. Needless to say, Ranieri, himself having won a significant trophy so late in his long career, has an eye for talent, especially ones that easily fall off other clubs radars because of their age. Amidst rumours of Conte looking to Lapadula for Euros, the future for the former Juventus youth certainly looks bright.
