Simone Scuffet: New Gianluigi Buffon Now Udinese Benchwarmer
Mar 20, 2015
FLORENCE, ITALY - APRIL 06: Simone Scuffet of Udinese Calcio in action during the Serie A match between ACF Fiorentina and Udinese Calcio at Stadio Artemio Franchi on April 6, 2014 in Florence, Italy. (Photo by Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images)
Udinese goalkeeper Simone Scuffet, 18, has gone from being compared to living legend Gianluigi Buffon to warming the benches.
Scuffet's inconspicuous inactivity is the first impediment he needs to overcome if he wants to emulate Buffon.
Instant Fame
Scuffet was inspired to play the game by his father, a football tragic.
"When I first started getting into football, my dad was a goalkeeper, so I followed suit," Scuffet said, per FIFA. "He only played in the amateur leagues, never professionally."
Making a modest wager, Scuffet promised he would surpass his father, Fabrizio.
"When I was a kid I made a bet with my father that I would be a better goalkeeper that him and go further in the game," Scuffet said, per FIFA. "I think I've done that."
When then-Udinese manager Francesco Guidolin called up Scuffet as an emergency starter against Bologna last February, he was not a complete unknown.
During the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup, Scuffet earned critical acclaim from FIFA's technical study group: "Italian keeper Scuffet pulled off an outstanding save. ... [He] displayed a high level of maturity and great anticipation...[and was] composed and reliable."
Scuffet was one of five goalkeeping prospects at the tournament highlighted as a key player by the technical study group (listed in alphabetical order):
Anton Mitryushkin (Russia).
Dele Alampasu (Nigeria); Golden Glove recipient.
Raul Gudino (Mexico).
Simone Scuffet (Italy).
Thiago Cardozo (Uruguay).
With Zeljko Brkic in despair, Scuffet needed to call on his U-17 World Cup experience, as he was hurled into the big leagues at the last minute.
"I never expected to play [against Bologna], but in the warm-up Brkic had a problem," Scuffet said, per Sky (h/t Football Italia). "[Guidolin] decided to send me out. It was an incredible feeling."
Unlike Wojciech Pawlowski, who was never given an extended run, you can imagine Guidolin closing his eyes, sighing and pencilling in Scuffet's name as Udinese's starter for the rest of the season.
Scuffet vindicated Guidolin's gamble with extraordinary saves.
Stepping to the right, Scuffet pulled off a stupefying save in the opposite direction to parry a swiftly hit shot after an acrobatic attempt from Maximiliano Moralez in a 1-1 draw against Atalanta.
It was a moment of remarkable athleticism from Scuffet, as he compensated for being out of position.
Denying Jaroslav Plasil and Gonzalo Bergessio in quick succession, Scuffet notched seven saves in a 1-0 win over Catania.
In the footballing world, there is an obsession with wunderkinds, so Scuffet's progress was being eagerly documented on Twitter.
It must have been a bitter pill to swallow for Brkic, a backup who wanted to be the No. 1, and Ivan Kelava, who was initially Udinese's starter, as they watched Scuffet, a schoolboy, turn into a star.
Statistically, Scuffet accumulated more saves and clean sheets while having a more efficient saves-per-goal-conceded record and clean-sheet percentage than Brkic and Kelava.
FIFA World Cup winner Dino Zoff believed Scuffet possessed world-class potential.
"[Scuffet's] calmness and coolness are striking. If you show these characteristics on the field [at 17 years of age], you are destined to become a great player," Zoff said, per Il Mattino (h/t Mark Doyle at Goal). "Credit to Guidolin for putting [Scuffet] out there."
Talk about a resounding endorsement.
However, Zoff, who was 32 years old when he played his first FIFA World Cup game in 1974, did not approve of Scuffet being prematurely elevated into the Italy national team.
Zoff was against Scuffet going to the 2014 FIFA World Cup because he had "zero experience."
Buffon, a FIFA World Cup winner like Zoff, disagreed.
"Should Scuffet go to Brazil?," Buffon said, per FourFourTwo. "Considering what he is doing [at the moment for Udinese] I'd say he deserves it."
Then-Italy national team manager Cesare Prandelli sided with Zoff, electing to take Buffon, Salvatore Sirigu and Mattia Perin to the FIFA World Cup.
It reminds you how much hype surrounded Scuffet for a period of time last year.
Udinese rewarded Scuffet's breakout half-season with a contract extension until 2019.
Comatose
During the 2014 summer transfer window, Scuffet considered playing in Spain after being approached by La Liga champions Atletico Madrid.
Udinese were in line to receive a €5/£3.62 million transfer fee, potentially rising to €10/£7.24 million, and Scuffet would be loaned to "another Spanish club," per Gianluca Di Marzio.
That "Spanish club" was probably Granada, which is controlled by the same owners as Udinese.
Alarme da Gazzetta: "Muitos estrangeiros (e muito ruins)". Enquanto mais um jovem pode ir, Scuffet rumo ao Atlético pic.twitter.com/2xljCBJT5R
Scuffet's agent, Claudio Vagheggi, pulled the plug on the proposed deal.
"Atletico Madrid's offer was interesting and advantageous," Vagheggi said, per Tuttomercatoweb (h/t Sky Sports). "But we agreed with [Udinese] and with [Scuffet's] family that the best thing for him is to have a progressive and gradual growth."
Five months later, Scuffet was mulling over a January transfer window loan to Crotone in Serie B, per Tuttomercatoweb (h/t Bleacher Report's Adam Digby).
According to @TuttoMercatoWeb, Serie B side Crotone are looking to take Udinese GK Simone Scuffet on loan. He turned down Atleti in summer!
"We studied a programme of gradual growth [for prospects] and [Scuffet understands]," Stramaccioni said, per La Gazzetta dello Sport (h/t Football Italia). "Even Buffon, after his great debut for Parma, went back to being behind Luca Bucci the next season."
What Now?
NAPLES, ITALY - JANUARY 22 : Simone Scuffet of Udinese in action during the TIM CUP match between SSC Napoli and Udinese Calcio at the San Paolo Stadium on January 22, 2015 in Naples, Italy. (Photo by Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Images)
Let's be realistic.
Even if he is not Buffon 2.0, you can envision Scuffet having a Morgan De Sanctis-like career.
It has been underwhelming for Scuffet, who was expected to kick on after the high standards he set last season, so who should he turn to for advice?
Himself, circa 2014.
Yes, it is a different context now from then, but the message is still applicable.
"Serenity, tranquillity and courage...I have to remain calm. I haven't achieved anything yet," Scuffet said, per La Gazzetta dello Sport (h/t James Horncastle at Eurosport). "The road is long."
Antonio Di Natale Reminds Us Why Football Is About More Than Just Trophies
Nov 28, 2014
Udinese's Antonio Di Natale, celebrates after scoring during the Serie A soccer match between Udinese and Chievo at the Friuli Stadium in Udine, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014. (AP Photo/Paolo Giovannini)
The goal itself was unremarkable. A chipped ball forward into the box, a poor defensive header and an instinctive finish from a striker who found himself in the perfect spot to take advantage.
Antonio Di Natale has scored better goals (much better) but not many that were more satisfying. This was his 200th Serie A strike, delivered, with perfect timing, in his 400th Serie A game.
Timing. There are few strikers in the world with a keener sense of it than Di Natale, a man who continues, at 37 years old, to evade defenders who are stronger, fitter and faster. He has seven goals in 11 appearances so far this season, and not one of them has involved overpowering or out-sprinting an opponent.
More often than not, he has simply been in the right places at the right moments.
Viewing each goal in isolation, you might even conclude he had been lucky. Over the course of a prolific career, such explanations can safely be thrown out the window. The ball keeps landing at Di Natale’s feet because, like Pippo Inzaghi before him, he understands where that is likeliest to happen.
For poachers, football is often a numbers game. Keep taking up the right positions, and eventually you will get your reward.
Which is not to define Di Natale as an Inzaghi clone. For one thing, the Udinese man is blessed with superior technique. He might do his best work inside the 18-yard box, but Di Natale is also capable of whipping a free-kick into the top corner from the best part of 30 yards. You could never accuse him, as Johan Cruyff famously did Inzaghi, of not being able to play football.
Conversely, though, there is one criticism of Di Natale which could never be aimed at the Milan manager: that of lacking ambition. How can it be that a player of such obvious talents never played for a bigger club than Udinese and never won a major competition in his career? Di Natale has at different times been sought by the likes of Juventus and Milan but always turned them down.
He did confess one regret this month, telling Sportweek magazine (h/t Fifa.com) that he would have loved to have played for Liverpool—just to experience the atmosphere of home games at Anfield. "When they took (Andrea) Dossena in 2008, there was talk of me going as well," he said. "But then nothing happened."
For the English club, that must go down as some regret. Liverpool had an in-form Fernando Torres scoring goals back then, but the image of Di Natale running on to through balls from Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso is certainly an alluring one.
Otherwise, though, the truth is that Di Natale has been happy exactly where he is. A quiet soul, he long ago came to the conclusion that family mattered more to him than fame and fortune. Deep down he is still the same kid who, when signed to Empoli’s academy at 13 years old, became so homesick that he ran away and fled 300 miles back to Naples, per The Score.
He would eventually return and grow to love Empoli—where he still has a family home. Likewise, he and his wife, Ilenia, have relished setting down roots in the Friuli since he joined Udinese in 2004. Besides scoring goals, Di Natale has set up a football school and become a partner in a coffee business.
But with the exception of that mooted Liverpool move, the idea of relocating yet again has simply never appealed. Di Natale and his family are happy. In life, is that not what most of us are seeking?
And is it not that sense of joy which makes Di Natale such a pleasure to watch? Rare are the players who smile more often during a game.
There was a brief window, earlier this year, when football stopped being fun. Di Natale's father was close to death, fighting a losing battle against a long illness, and Udinese were mired in a miserable run of form. The fans had turned on the team at a time when Di Natale felt most in need of support. Tired and frustrated, he told reporters he would retire at the end of the campaign (h/t ESPN FC).
In the same Sportweek interview where he made his comments about Liverpool, Di Natale recalled telling his family of the decision (h/t the Guardian): "I had just got home and I said 'the time has come to stop'," he said. "[My wife] looked at me with the air of someone who is not very convinced and replied 'It's your career and you will know when the time comes. Do the right thing for you.' But Filippo, my son, started to laugh. Maybe he already knew how it would end."
That is to say, with Di Natale staying on for one more year and—who knows?—maybe even longer. For now, he has his sights set on leapfrogging Roberto Baggio into fifth place on Serie A’s all-time scoring charts. Six more goals would do it.
It would take a foolish soul to bet against him doing it. And it would take a narrow-minded one to argue that the player has wasted his talents by chasing happiness—and goals— throughout his life, instead of worrying about trophies.
It was raining, and whole sides of the stadium were empty, huge sections of multi-coloured seats. Under the cover of the west stand were roughly 3,000 fans, one of them just outside, standing soaked without a shirt...
Coppa Italia Win Against Milan Is Only Papering over the Cracks at Udinese
Jan 23, 2014
Udinese defender Thomas Heurtaux, of France, celebrates after winning the Italian Cup soccer match between AC Milan and Udinese at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014. Udinese won 2-1. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
Udinese came to Milan with few fans and even fewer hopes. In truth their season has been a disaster, and despite a fine second-half display, the travelling fans would have been surprised to witness Nicolas Lopez’s superb individual winner.
In recent years, Udinese have looked like an attractive side. With a tactically savvy coach and a wealth of undiscovered talent from South America revolving through the doors at the Stadio Friuli, they seemed to have the ideal setup. Add to this the ever-green Antonio Di Natale and it is easy to see why they have taken many big scalps and finished in the Europa and even Champions League spots.
This season, however, is a different story. Despite their impressive efforts in the Coppa Italia, their league form has been very poor. After 20 games they sit in 15th place with six wins, two draws and an incredible 12 defeats to their name. They have conceded 31 and scored only 20, and dangle precariously only three points off the drop zone.
One reason for this is the evident decline of Di Natale who, at the beginning of the year, decided to call this season his last season. This is catastrophic news for fans of the Zebrette. The 36-year-old signed for the club in 2004 and has become an icon for his goal-scoring ability. He finished top scorer in the division in 2009/10 and 2001/12, but this season he has struggled to find his clinical best and has only managed five goals.
Udinese have often had to sell off some of their major stars to balance the books and also because the allure of teams like Barcelona to Alexi Sanchez, per say, is just too great. In the closed season this summer, however, there was an exodus of over 20 players with names like Antonio Candreva, Juan Cuadrado, Pablo Armero, Mehdi Benatia, Andrea Coda, Giovanni Pasquale and Marco Faraoni all leaving. This has been a step too far, and the results have been evident on the pitch.
Coach Francesco Guidolin signed a new contract in the summer, and in truth it was richly deserved. He had his team drilled into an outfit that could destroy teams on the counter-attack, and his famous 3-5-2 formation was revered on the peninsula. It is perhaps the contributing factors of Di Natale’s dip in form and the huge turnover of players that have not allowed this system to work as fluidly as has been the case in recent years. It is either this or that other teams have finally figured him out.
There is still a long way to go in the season, and there is no doubt that the Coppa Italia win against Milan will boost confidence. The problem for Guidolin and his team is that he has to find a way to make his team gel, and quickly. The defeat at home to Lazio this weekend was fifth at home so far this year, and with Di Natale unable to haul them back on his own, the question has to be asked: Could they unthinkably slip into Serie B?
Udinese Captain Antonio Di Natale: A Man to Admire, a Striker to Fear
Jan 6, 2014
MILAN, ITALY - MAY 19: Antonio Di Natale of Udinese Calcio celebrates during the Serie A match between FC Internazionale Milano and Udinese Calcio at San Siro Stadium on May 19, 2013 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Claudio Villa/Getty Images)
“It was a choice of life for me. I feel so good here in Udine, and the president’s family have always made me feel like I was one of them. Some things are worth more than money.”
Beyond any statistics or analysis of his scoring prowess, those words—via UEFA.com and spoken three years ago—sum up Antonio Di Natale perhaps better than anything else. His humility and the devotion to Udinese which stems from it are the hallmarks of a career which will come to an end this summer.
Following a loss to Hellas on Monday, the 36-year-old decided the time was right to announce he would not be back for another campaign with the Zebrette, telling Sky Italia:
“At the end of the season, I will stop. I have already spoken about it with my family. I’ve decided this is my last campaign. It all ends in June. It does hurt, because I’ve scored more goals for Udinese than I’ve gone out for dinner with my wife. I care about Udinese, as this club is like my family.”
He has come to embody the northern Italian club over the 10 years he has spent there, despite previously having no ties to either the team or the region before his arrival. Many have wondered aloud whether he should have looked to leave the Stadio Friuli for a “bigger” club, but the striker’s story is one which perhaps explains his reluctance to leave.
At just 13 years old, he moved from his hometown of Naples to train with Empoli in Tuscany and became so homesick that within a matter of days, he ran away. He would return, but the memory and longing never entirely left him, as he took the first tentative steps of his career on loan at Iperzola and Varese. Success first came in the 1998-99 season, as he scored 12 times in 25 games in yet another loan spell with Viareggio.
From there, he finally made his breakthrough into the first team as part of a 2001-02 side which won promotion to the top flight by outscoring any other club in Serie B. Di Natale’s 16 goals lead the way, and he found the net 13 times in his debut Serie A campaign the following year, including a hat-trick in a win over Reggina.
A year later, however, the Tuscan side were relegated, and “Toto” was on the move once again, picked up by Udinese, a club now synonymous with discovering hidden gems. He played a deferential role for the first few seasons of his time there, playing alongside better known strikers such as Vincenzo Iaquinta and Fabio Quagliarella, who often took much of the attention away from him.
By 2007, he was named captain, but it was two more years before he would truly become the player so revered today. His first five seasons yielded 55 goals, but since the start of the 2009-10 campaign, he has hit the kind of scoring patch reserved for truly great players.
No longer asked to provide for his team-mates, he played the focal point of the Udinese attack, and the return has been staggering. The next four seasons would see him score 103 league goals in 140 appearances, coinciding with the arrival of coach Francesco Guidolin in the summer of 2010.
He too had bounced around, coaching teams as varied as Monaco, Palermo and tiny Treviso before landing back at the Friuli, and he immediately struck up an understanding with his skipper.
UDINE, ITALY - MAY 22: Head coach Francescoi Guidolin of Udinese celebrates qualification for the UEFA Champions League with Antonio Di Natale (R) after the Serie A match between Udinese Calcio and AC Milan at Stadio Friuli on May 22, 2011 in Udine, Ita
“He’s a great player. I’ve never had one like him.” Guidolin would tell Italian news agency ANSA, and he has helped nurse the striker’s ailing knees whenever possible over the past few seasons. Rarely training throughout the week, Di Natale has repaid the coach and Udinese with incredible loyalty and devotion.
When Juventus launched a public bid to sign Di Natale in 2010, he became one of very few players to reject the Turin giants, a move which confirmed his place in the heart of the Zebrette supporters. He would do the same on a much wider scale following the death of former team-mate Piermario Morosini in April 2012, who left behind a seriously disabled sister.
Aware that the she was now on her own after her parents passed away long before and another Morosini brother had taken his own life, Di Natale swore he would take care of her. “It is essential to stay by the side of Piermario’s sister for her entire life,” he said to Diretta Radio. “She needs us and we want to help, both for her and for Mario.”
So while his international credentials may have been tainted by his Euro 2008 penalty miss in the quarter-final loss to Spain or his club’s all too regular failings in Europe, Antonio Di Natale probably won’t care. As the man who rejected Juventus said when asked if he regretted not accepting a move to a big club, “I fear death, not football,” per Al Jazeera.
Transfer Scout: Allan Is the Player EPL Big Guns Should Target in Janaury
Oct 30, 2013
Udinese's Brazilian box-to-box midfielder Allan, 22, is one footballer major English Premier League clubs should be targeting in the January transfer window.
WHO IS ALLAN?
Formerly of Vasco da Gama, Allan was a peripheral figure in Ney Franco's victorious 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup Brazilian squad, only playing 118 minutes throughout the tournament.
However, 75 of those minutes did come in the 3-2 final win over Portugal.
He flew under the radar as he didn't play enough minutes to be named an outstanding player by the FIFA technical study group.
Also, his role in the final is largely forgotten.
People only remember Oscar's hat-trick and Portugal pinning all their hopes on Nelson Oliveira, a one-man counter-attack.
A year later, Udinese bought out Allan's €3 million contract at Vasco.
"Allan is an important player as his quality and versatility are rare qualities in football," said then Vasco manager Cristovao Borges in reaction to Allan's departure, via Christopher Atkins at Sambafoot.
"With the economic hardship we go through, it is very difficult to bring in replacements soon."
Coincidentally, Udinese have signed two other Allans in the past decade: Cameroonian right-back Allan Nyom in 2009 and Danish midfielder Allan Gaarde in 2002.
In Allan's first season for Udinese, he was a mainstay in Francesco Guidolin's lineup, making the most league starts for the club (33), leading the team in tackles per game (4.3) and passes per game (48.1).
Past players including David Pizarro, Gokhan Inler, Juan Cuadrado, Kwadwo Asamoah and Sulley Muntari show you how strong Udinese's scouting network is when it comes to signing all-round footballers.
Allan could be better than all the aforementioned players.
Allan is a ball winner with exceptional anticipation and is a disruptive presence to an opposing team's buildup play.
Earlier in the season, Allan made seven tackles (two more than Dimitar Berbatov has made this season) during a 3-1 win over Parma.
Opposing players risk getting their leg jarred if they fail to release the ball as soon as Allan rushes in.
The speed at which Allan closes down opponents is freakish.
Even though he tackles with velocity, he won back possession 199 times while conceding 47 free-kicks last season, proving he's an efficient tackler.
LEAGUE ONLY
Allan
Aaron Ramsey
Fernandinho
Lucas
Ramires
Tackles Per Game
5.9
4.4
2.9
5.4
3.4
Tackle Success %
80
85
83
68
84
Fouls Per Game
1.1
1.9
2.5
2.1
1.8
The difference between him and his fellow Brazilian Lucas of Liverpool is that Allan has natural positional awareness.
Lucas is often caught out of position due to his lunge-and-hope nature, hence why his tackling success percentage is so abysmal.
Tackling aside, what makes Allan a distinctive transfer prospect is his propensity to make something happen when he has the ball.
There's a sense of urgency when he's in possession and he constantly evades tackles.
Allan is a more effective dribbler than some of Europe's most esteemed attack-first players, Bayern Munich's Arjen Robben being one of them.
PROJECTING ALLAN'S UPSIDE
Allan has potential for greatness and he has a comparable approach to the game as Arturo Vidal, who's overtaken Andrea Pirlo as Juventus' MVP.
What separates Allan from being in the class of Vidal is the lack of goals and assists.
If you look at how quickly Aaron Ramsey has improved for Arsenal, going from scapegoat to one of Europe's best midfielders this season, you can only assume Allan will be a household name within the next few seasons.
This is why major Premier League clubs should be considering Allan as a transfer target this January.
Juventus, Milan and Napoli have been dominating Serie A of late, with Lazio keeping pace. Now, Fiorentina, Roma and Inter Milan will be looking to win back a place in Italy's elite.
But, it would be wrong to forget about Udinese, Serie A's most underrated side.
As usual, Udinese have been keeping a low profile through the summer transfer window. Obviously, they don't have the funds like its rivals to bring in some of the world's elite players.
However, that's not to say they won't impress this upcoming season.
Under the more-than-capable manager Francesco Guidolin, Udinese has flourished. Two years ago he led his team to third place and a spot in the Champions League, an astonishing feat for a club generally thought to be destined for the middle of the table.
Last year, Udinese again pushed towards the top of Serie A, ultimately finishing fifth and achieving a spot in the Europa League.
Guidolin has tactically found the perfect balance for his squad: a compact, well-organized side in the traditional Italian manner built around the venerable, goalscoring machine that is Antonio “Toto” Di Natale.
Although not performing up to his standards for the Italian National Team, Di Natale has consistently delivered for Udinese, living up to his captain’s armband and earning a place in the hearts of fans and teammates alike.
Only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have scored more goals than Toto since 2009. With over 100 goals in four years he’s “put to shame stars such as Falcao, Cavani, Ibrahimovic and Van Persie,” as Matteo Ronchetti of Goal.com notes.
At 35 years of age, he’s shown no signs of wavering, as the stats attest. He has contributed 23 goals in each of the past two seasons. Sam Lopresti of B/R was right to include him in the 10 Best-Value Fantasy Serie A picks for this season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggD_rn-kOmI
Toto’s longevity as a threat in front of goal can be attributed both to his own raw talent as well as the support that his team has provided thanks to Guidolin’s tactics.
But, Guidolin has done well to ensure the pressure doesn’t rest on the captain alone. Under the manager’s guidance, another striker, Luis Muriel, has had his chance to shine. In only 15 starts and a total of 22 matches, Muriel managed 11 goals and three assists. Perhaps the club’s best move on the market so far has been to keep Muriel at Udinese.
But past Muriel and Di Natale, Udinese is still not short of talent.
Although on paper they will be a weakened side by not holding onto Mehdi Benatia, Antonio Candreva, Pablo Armero and Juan Cuadrado, Udinese has had quite a successful market season. In fact, if anything, they’ve heavily reinforced their squad, considering none of the above players mentioned (besides Benatia) featured for Udinese for the entirety of last year’s successful season.
Now the club has signed both Nico Lopez and Valerio Verre from Roma, two young (both 19) and extremely talented players.
Lopez looks especially ready to make an immediate impact after being overlooked by the capital club despite his consistent performances for the Uruguayan U-20 squad, where he’s scored 10 goals in 16 appearances.
Meanwhile, Naldo seems a good replacement for Benatia, and Matej Vydra should get a chance after his successful spell at Watford, where he scored 20 goals in 41 appearances. Besides these incoming players (among others), Guidolin still has his stalwarts from last season. These include Allan, Giampiero Pinzi, Danilo, Dusan Basta and Roberto Pereyra.
Udinese are certainly not a side to be overlooked. They could very well surprise again, despite again not being the favorites for a spot in Europe.
It won’t be an easy campaign with Fiorentina, Roma, Milan, Lazio, Juventus and Inter Milan all growing in strength, but the Zebrette under Guidolin will definitely have something interesting to add before the season’s close.
Udinese's Prolific Antonio Di Natale Deserves a Lot More Credit
Jan 28, 2013
In a cold Stadio Friuli, Udinese beat Siena 1-0 at home and for once, Antonio Di Natale was not the hero. No, the Zebrette's saviour on that rarest of occasion when Toto was not his usual lethal self in front of goal, was Luis Muriel.
The 21-year-old Columbian striker did well to slot it past Gianluca Pegolo in the Siena goal, and has had his fine performances in the Udinese shirt this season—since returning from loan at Lecce—rewarded with a contract extension. But while the deal states that he'll stay in Friuli until 2017, the gamblers out there won't be laying many bets on him seeing it through.
That's because Udinese, probably Serie A's best talent factory in recent years, is a selling club. Every year a new star or two come along, and every year they're sold to the highest bidder.
In the last two years alone, they've let go of enough players to make the bones of a championship-winning team. To name but a few examples: Samir Handanovic is now between the sticks at Inter. Mauricio Isla and Kwadwo Asamoah went off hand-in-hand to Juventus. Gokhan Inler is pulling strings in the Napoli midfield. And the jewel in the crown, Alexis Sanchez? Why he's enjoying the sunshine in Barcelona, of course.
Almost as soon as a player starts to shine in the white-and-black stripes, it seems, they're out looking for potential buyers. The one exception to the rule? Antonio Di Natale.
Giampaolo Pozzo's work in creating a solid, consistently over-pefroming and financially stable club in the north-easternmost tip of Italy should be applauded. After a troubled start to his ownership back in the 1980s—the team were embroiled in a nasty betting scandal that saw them disgraced and relegated in 1987—the entrepreneur has made them a key player in Italian football.
But the business-first focus of the man, who also owns Granada in Spain and Watford in England, has undoubtedly held Udinese back. In fact, it would probably have all but crippled them were it not for the efforts of Di Natale.
He might be 35, but Toto seems to get better with age. Or at least he's not looking any worse for wear. Even when coach Francesco Guidolin plays him not fully fit, the energetic native of Naples puts in a fine shift—and more often than not, wins the game.
It's this over-reliance on Antonio that should worry fans of Udinese, Italy's second oldest football club. His goals have disguised the flaws in Pozzo's prudent financial approach, by providing apparent proof that the players off-loaded weren't needed in the first place.
But take Toto out of the equation and Udinese looks like a very different proposition. In 2011-12, the Zebrette scored 52 goals in the league. Di Natale scored 23 of them. The season before, 28 of their 65 goals came from the striker.
Both times they finished in the Champions League places. But if you look back to 2009-10, when Udinese scored 54 and conceded 59, they finished in 15th—nine points above relegation. Take away Di Natale's Capocannoniere-winning 29 goals and they'd have been a lot worse off.
Udinese have been relying on his goals for too long now; playing a dangerous game of chicken with a nose-dive down the table. Because if the ageing striker suffers a dip in form, or worse, an injury, there'll be some big shoes to fill up front.
Returns of 23, 28 or even 29 goals in the league might not seem out of the ordinary when Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are scoring 46 and 50 goals a season in Spain. But look at it in perspective.
The Portuguese's 46 strikes last season made up just 38% of Real Madrid's total of a staggering 121 in the league. Even Messi's fine 50 is only 43% of Barcelona's 114 for the term.
Then the Spanish champions and their great Catalan rivals finished with goal differences of +89 and +85 respectively. No question about it, the two greatest players in the world right now had a massive part in it all, but they weren't the only ones carrying the can.
No Di Natale last season, or the season before, and Udinese would have been in negative goal difference and a lot farther down the table. And with 14 league goals this season, he's only one goal shy of the highly-touted Stephan El Shaarawy at Milan, despite playing three fewer games.
Toto isn't Messi, Ronaldo or maybe even El Shaarawy. And at his age, he's not going to win any major titles or trouble the youngsters come Player-of-the-Year time. But as a lethal striker in front of goal, a versatile and selfless team player, a key part of an attractive footballing set-up and an all-around nice guy, Di Natale should be hailed and enjoyed by football fans everywhere for as long as he can keep going.
And for the sake of Udinese's fans, let's just hope that's another while yet.
