RAMIREZ: THE NEW CRACK OF ITALIAN FOOTBALL

Once upon a time there were Roberto Baggio, Gianfranco Zola and  Roberto Mancini. Then it was the turn of Alessandro Del Piero and Francesco Totti, that with their enchantments with the ball made football fans fall in love. Italian football has always been a fertile ground for football players with talent and fantasy. Fantasy belongs to the DNA of our country. Fantasists are that race of football players that once - when marketing still  didn't  allow football players to have a number above 99 on their jerseys - you recognized from the number 10 on their shoulders. Now you can still recognize them through the elegant  touch on the ball. They’re always able to stimulate your imagination. Players like Baggio, Zola, Mancini precisely. Their carriers are typified by an incredible gallery of amazing goals. Fantastic goals that remain forever in the memories and are  reviewed one hundred times in a row on you tube. As the back heel  of Mancini against Parma when he played for Lazio or the back heel  done  by Del Piero in a Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund in 1997. Technical gestures so impossible to forget that they make you excited. Yesterday during the Serie a  match between Bologna and Fiorentina the gallery of the fantastic goals of Serie a was increased thanks to a back heel that gave the second and decisive goal for Bologna’ success (the back heel of Ramirez in the pic belowe).

The author of the football masterpiece wasn’t Di Vaio -another striker accustomed to score impossible goal – but a new promising talent. The new crack of Italian football. His name is Gaston Ramirez, a 21 old Uruguayan offensive player that during  his second season with bologna is surprising everyone. All top teams are following him now. Despite renewing his contract until 2016 with Bologna, Juventus and Liverpool seem to be closer to purchase him for the next season . We will see…

But what kind of football player is he? Is he  a midfielder or a striker? May be both. Let’s  try to know him better: He started his career in Panarol in 2009. One year later Bologna bought him for 3 million euro. An excellent deal for Bologna as the Uruguayan now costs about 20-25 million euro. Ramirez  has a great versatility and he’s able to play on the left wing and also  behind the strikers. He’s actually left footed and  could cut in the box to try the shot. He’s  fast enough with good dribbling skills. El Niño, this is his nickname, is in fact  in his home country compared to Pavel Nedved, the great former Juventus' Check champion. But in my view he resembles Nedved just for the position in the field and because of his left foot. For the rest Nedved based his play-style on strength while Ramirez is provided with more excellent technique. This season Ramirez has  scored 5 goals and he’s contributing to save Bologna from retrocession in Serie b. I think that El Niño continuing in this way can still  improve and  try to follow in Alexi Shanchez’s footprint. Another Niño, el Niño maravilla this time, currently a Barcelona player. It shows us how serie A sometimes can be a fertile ground for bringing  up new champions. Hopefully this time the Uruguayan flower Ramirez remains planted on the ground of Serie A.