Juventus’ new midfield battler Antonio Nocerino must often have thought that his chance to play for La Vecchia Signora would never come. Taken on by the Zebrette’s youth team as a teenager in 2002, he would have to wait five years to make his debut, despite consistently impressing on his loan spells at a myriad of Serie B outfits. No sooner had the gift of a place in the Juve starting XI been granted him at the start of this season, his dream was almost tragically ended as he was hit by a car and thrown into its windscreen outside a restaurant in Turin where he had been dining with his fiancée.
“I’m okay now, but at the time of the accident my fear was so great. I didn’t lose consciousness at the scene and thankfully I’ve made a full recovery from my injuries,” explained the Neapolitan. “I wouldn’t wish this to happen to anyone. I feel like a miracle of some kind, as if someone has saved me.” Nocerino could easily have become the latest name on a long and tragic list of players in Italy to have come off worse from incidents involving automobiles. Gigi Meroni, Gaetano Scirea, Jason Mayele, Vittorio Mero – the number of fatalities seems unnaturally high, while the likes of Gianluigi Lentini, Matteo Sereni and Julio Gonzalez could have added themselves to that list.
With such a narrow escape, just as he has been handed his big chance, you have to feel that the combative midfielder – described by many as the new Gennaro Gattuso – will have even more desire to grasp this big opportunity. As an 18-year-old he played a full term in Serie B for Avellino before splitting the next season between Genoa and Catanzaro. For 2005-06 it was destination Crotone, until Messina took him in the January transfer window and gave him his Serie A debut. Even last year, with Juventus demoted to Serie B, he was farmed out to Piacenza.
He also came within a whisker of permanently leaving the Olimpico this summer. “I was on the road travelling to Florence to sign with Fiorentina, when I received a phone call. It was Juventus’ sporting director Alessio Secco telling me to return to the club to take part in their pre-season camp,” revealed the 22-year-old. It appears the decision was a wise one as Claudio Ranieri used him in some capacity in every match through to Week 7, even giving him a start against Roma just days after his altercation with a FIAT 500.
That ought to tell you something about the player’s strength and resilience. Although to see him in training, flicking the ball up on to his head and rolling it down his face before kissing it and letting it drop perfectly back into the keep-up routine, you would think he was a flair player full of trickery. Once you have seen him on the pitch for Juventus, or the Azzurrini at this summer’s European Under-21 championship, it becomes clear that he is a different prospect. It is no wonder he has already become a favourite of the tifosi.
“Wearing the Bianconeri shirt was always a dream of mine and to finally do that in Serie A is just unbeatable,” beamed the shaven-headed enforcer. His task so far this season has been to fill the boots of Mauro Camoranesi on the right-side of the midfield and he has even kept experienced Portuguese international signing Tiago out of the side. Such versatility and desire to play should ensure his spot as a vital cog in Ranieri’s masterplan and may even alert the attentions of Roberto Donadoni.
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