Calcio Debate: Has Antonio Cassano Ended His World Cup Chances By Staying At Sampdoria?

You may have been the most expensive teenager at one point in footballing history, a footballer so supremely impressive that you were soon snapped up by the Godfather of the Galacticos.

You may have been arguably the best Italian footballer in Serie A last season and had the second highest number of assists. You may have been the inspiration behind your team’s near Coppa Italia triumph and the man who destroyed the Italian champions in that run.

You may even be the most imaginative Italian mind playing these days, start your training and preparation for the season ahead at a time when most footballers are getting a natural tan on the beach, but come on, admit it: you will never ever be good enough for your national team coach. Never.

The feud between Marcello Lippi and Antonio Cassano is as much enigmatic as desperate and it is presumed that as long as Lippi leads the Italian national side, Cassano would never be able to add to his tally of 15 international matches. Cassano will simply never be good enough for Lippi, who would rather lose a major competition than win it with a man who likes women and cakes and plans to get “really, really fat” when he is done with football.

Lippi froze Cassano out of his Italian team when he took charge after the Euro 2008 disaster. Of course the reasons were plenty - Cassano is his own man, an undisciplined, non-conforming, uncompromising ‘Peter Pan’ who wouldn't defend, isn't tactically flexible or adaptable; he can drift out of matches, gets cold feet off the ball and can throw tantrums. As talented as he is, Cassono's unwillingness to give his best - something he himself admits in his autobiography - and his lack of team ethics make him a misfit for Lippi's approach to football.

The last straw that could break the camel's back, or in other words, the final reason that could end Cassano's very slim 2010 World Cup hopes, is Sampdoria, a mid-table Serie A club who bar the Coppa Italia cannot even dream of winning anything, a club that will not play in Europe next season.

No, this is not to suggest that Sampdoria are impeding Fantantonio's progress - if anything, it were the Blucerchiati that seeped new life into the Italian- but it is precisely because of their lack of glamour and European success that Cassano could suffer as far as breaking into the national side is concerned.

Sampdoria finished 13th in Serie A last season, closer to the relegation zone than to a European place. The combination of Giampaolo Pazzini and Cassano in the second half of the campaign was sensational but Samp were never in contention for a European spot and tried for a top half finish instead. And failed.

Cassano's breathtaking performance in the league went unnoticed by Lippi, who resisted all calls for the 27-year-old to be reinstated in the Azzurri squad, and the Coppa Italia, where again Fantantonio shone, is not taken seriously anyway.

Next season Luigi Del Neri’s side are expected to play pretty much an also-ran role in Serie A. Perhaps Sampdoria, like Cassano, lack a winning strand in their DNA and lacking a winning mentality is enough fodder for Lippi's disdain to inflate. Cassano questions the pursuit of trophies in his autobiography and explains that living well and playing for the moment is more important than sweating for glories. At Sampdoria, Cassano wouldn’t really have to toil day in day out; his talent is enough for him to survive at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.

Playing at a major Italian club would have made Antonio Cassano a more disciplined player and would have pushed him into the limelight. Playing at Inter, who were linked with Cassano earlier in the summer, would have given an idea how the 27-year-old can function in a disciplined atmosphere and whether he can compete in the Champions League.

Playing well in the domestic arena is one thing, becoming the best on the European stage is quite another. Zinedine Zidane's best moment in club football was that goal at Hampden Park, Kaka's best moments in a Milan shirt was the destruction of Manchester United in 2006-07, Steven Gerrard's 2005 European Cup final performance is legendary.

Playing for a club featuring in Europe would have put Cassano in the limelight and given him the stage his talent deserves: the media would have focused more on him and the fans would have discussed him regularly over dinner. But that would have brought its own 'ills' - unalloyed commitment, discipline, maintenance of diet, losing freedom on the pitch. Playing for Sampdoria, though, expresses Cassano’s natural talent, which is something the current Italian side depressingly needs.

What do you think? Has Antonio Cassano made the right decision in staying with Sampdoria? Or is this going to further diminish his chances of playing in South Africa next year? Goal.com wants to know what you think.

Subhankar Mondal, Goal.com

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