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Vincenzo Iaquinta: The soul man
After seven years with Udinese, climbing aboard the Juventus juggernaut was a shock to the system for Vincenzo Iaquinta. However, as Paul Watson explains, he is starting to look at home in Turin
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At Udinese, Vincenzo Iaquinta was a big fish in a small pond. So when the Calabrian marksman secured an £8m summer switch to Juventus, it was as if he had swum into the Atlantic Ocean. In sleepy Udine, Iaquinta saw a side built around him as he consistently fired his way into double figures.
With a goal every three games, the former Castel Di Sangro man was part of a Zebrette team that scaled new heights by, albeit briefly, gaining access to the Promised Land of the Champions League in 2005-06. In his first ever outing in Europe’s showpiece club competition, Iaquinta hit a hat-trick against Panathinaikos, but he found himself having to shoulder too great a burden to keep the dream alive. Playing an important role in Italy’s World Cup triumph in Germany helped Vincenzo underline the fact that his talents deserved a bigger stage.
Furthermore, as Iaquinta’s status grew, so did his wage demands and it became inevitable that the towering striker would have to find a bigger club. “There is no point in looking back with regrets, but maybe I did spend a couple of years too many at Udinese,” Iaquinta admitted. “But then again, maybe that delay just helped me arrive at Juventus more prepared.”
Last season was frustrating for Iaquinta as he found himself in limbo. There were whispers that Juventus had an eye on him, but it appears that his desire to climb the football ladder nearly took him further a field. “I only read about interest from Roma in the newspapers,” he explained. “The deal that was virtually done in 2005 was with Barcelona. I was ready to sign, but at that time Udinese were third and decided to gamble on reaching the Champions League and Barça went for Maxi Lopez.”
However, Iaquinta’s frustration was to be replaced by jubilation last summer as he completed his dream move to Juventus. Vincenzo had gone from one Bianconeri to another, but the team colours were the only familiar aspect of his new habitat. “It was an indescribable emotion to have arrived at Juventus,” he recalled. “It was like a childhood dream come true. To play for a club with 10m fans and someone stopping you every 10 metres in the street is something else. In the pre-season camp at Pinzolo we had 4,000 people there each day – I thought that the 100 we used to get at Udinese was a lot.”
Whether or not Iaquinta could keep his cool in the pressure cooker that is Turin was a true test of his credentials. While the bright lights of the peninsula’s calcio hotbeds have blinded other provincial heroes, the unassuming southerner has passed the test with flying colours. A goal on your debut is the perfect tonic for first night nerves, so when Iaquinta bagged a brace against Livorno on the opening day of the season it must have put him at ease in his new surroundings.
Having spent such a long period as the main man at Udinese, nobody could have expected Vincenzo to make the transition to second striker with such apparent ease. His partnership with Serie A Capocannoniere David Trezeguet is the envy of Juve’s top-flight rivals, especially Milan, and Iaquinta’s quality has been a crucial factor in the increasing ostracisation of talismanic captain Alessandro Del Piero. “I get on very well with Alex, but my relationship with Trez is superb – he is truly a phenomenon,” Iaquinta enthused.
It’s not hard to see why the 28-year-old is getting the nod ahead of the man five years his senior. While Pinturricchio seems to regard a Juve shirt as his right, Iaquinta has the frenzied passion of a man who has painstakingly battled his way to calcio’s summit and is winning comparisons to former Bianconeri star Fabrizio Ravanelli. “There is certainly a similarity,” Iaquinta declared. “He gave his soul just as I do and we have similar scoring records.”
His passion and infectious enthusiasm have already made Vincenzo a fans’ favourite and he is emblematic of the invigorated Old Lady, full of defiant enthusiasm and belief. Doubters said that Iaquinta wouldn’t make the grade at one of the nation’s giants and that Juve couldn’t challenge for the Scudetto this term. The critics could well be eating a double portion of humble pie come May.
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| Words: Paul Watson – January 2008 |
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