Andrea Belotti

‘I want to start matches, the first objective is to reach double figures. This year I want to play and be a starter to show my worth.’ – Andrea Belotti, one of Italy’s most highly rated young strikers, was pretty adamant about his goals for the upcoming season with Palermo in a recent interview with Sky. Maurizio Zamparini, the club’s colourful owner and serial manager-sacker, however, annouced on radio that he was looking for a new striker to replace the outgoing Paulo Dybala.

Rejected by Atalanta (who let go Simone Zaza as well) and Napoli in the early stages of his career, Belotti, a forward particularly noted for his range of shooting forms and finishing, eventually settled at AlbinoLeffe, who, in his words, accepted him within ‘ten minutes’ of his trial. In his first season there, he missed only one league match, scoring 14 goals in 37 appearances. Having caught the eye of several clubs with these performances, Palermo eventually bought half of his rights. Then in Serie B, Palermo’s promotion campaign proved to be a platform upon which the youngster was able to build on and become nationally recognised. Despite the competition from Paulo Dybala, Hernandez and Kyle Lafferty (!), he contributed 10 goals to Palermo’s return to the top flight mainly coming off the bench, twice as many as this season’s star in Dybala. It was inevitable that Palermo would make the transfer permanent at the end of that season.

Nevertheless, ‘Il Gallo’ – ‘the rooster’, a nickname he admits to have ‘stolen’ from a childhood friend which he also used as inspiration for his trademark celebration- had a less impressive season, being overshadowed by the unstoppable Vazquez-Dybala duo. Despite success in youth national team, he has faltered a bit at club level. Nevertheless, if Zamparini can show the same faith in him as he did for Dybala – who had endured two fairly average seasons, there is no doubt Belotti will develop into one of the best in the country. With Dybala and Hernandez both gone now, the Sicilians will be looking to the man from Bergamo to provide the goals this season. With much of Dybala’s success coming from Franco Vazquez’s performances – nearly a third of his goals being set up by his compatriot-, there is hope that he will be able to provide what is needed for Belotti to reach that double figures milestone this season.