The arrival of a new number 10 at Perugia is not usually the kind of news that will grace the front page of the Gazzetta dello Sport. However, the Serie B newcomers fresh from a championship campaign in Lega Pro, have pulled off something of a coup by persuading a well-known Brazilian to take up that particular spot on their team: ex-Roma midfielder Rodrigo Taddei.
Taddei left the Giallorossi at the end of 2013/14, having played over 300 games for the club over nine seasons, including nearly thirty games in his last campaign.
He seemed in no rush to get fixed up with a club, perhaps a testament to his impressive career, and a number Serie A clubs were said to be interested in securing his services. Both Genoa and Fiorentina were rumoured to be preparing deals, while lucrative contracts in the middle east were also mooted.
In the end, though, Taddei opted to join the Grifoni, newly promoted to the second tier. He is, of course, not the first Serie A player to drop down a level, though is more unusual in that he has opted to join a new club in Serie B. Given the limited finances in that division, one can assume he will not be earning huge amounts of money at the Stadio Renato Curi.
However, he has been offered a deal for two seasons with an optional extension which, at the age of 34, may well represent his last professional contract.
Perugia are a famous name in Italian football, and carry a number of historical curios with them wherever they go, most notably their best ever season, 1978/79, when Illario Castagner’s team went unbeaten for the whole season but finished runners-up to an AC Milan side that lost three times.
More recently, Perugia was the club of Luciano Gaucci, a man who threatened to sack South Korean forward Ahn-Jung Hwan for scoring the goal that knocked Italy out of the World Cup in 2002, and offered a contract to Al-Saadi Al-Ghaddafi, son of Colonel Gaddafi. Al-Saadi played only one game in Serie A, being found out as not quite the player he was expected to be.
Things have been calmer since Gaucci ran the club into the ground, building up slowly before finally pipping Lecce and Frosinone to promotion for Lega Pro Division 1 last season. That triumph followed victories in Serie D and Lega Pro Division 2 and sees them returning to Serie B for the first time since 2004/05, when they finished third but were relegated because of financial problems.
For a promoted side, the appeal of Taddei is obvious. Although nominally a holding midfielder, the Brazilian has filled in most positions during his career – his versatility meaning he offers a little more attacking threat than a traditionally defensive midfielder, as well as being able to drift right and left.
Indeed, though he was expected to be well down Rudi Garcia’s pecking order for the Giallorossi last season, Kevin Strootman’s injury allowed Taddei back into his traditional position having been operating as a more obvious holding midfielder beforehand. Although never the fastest player, Taddei’s pace has slowed a little with age though his workrate remains as high as ever.
It will not be his undoubtedly prowess surging forward that is expected to thrill Serie B crowds, rather the more stoic aspects of a holding midfielder – ensuring one of the division’s bigger stars is fulfilling a role that is often seen unnoticed; an unusual situation for a player whose ball control is such that he created a dribbling ‘trick’ while early in his Roma career.
In that context, going to Perugia represents not so much a last hurrah for his fading star, but an assertion that what he feels he can offer as a footballer outweighs a lot of what others thought of him. It is a blow struck of Taddei’s determination to eke the best of himself while he still can.
That determination, and his belief in Massimiliano Santopadre’s project may well be the reason he accepted the Umbrian side’s offer. It may not have been the best on the table financially, but with the option of a third year should Perugia be promoted back to Serie A during the course of his first two seasons at the Stadio Renato Curi.
Whether either party manages to achieve that level of success remains to be seen, but the size of the playoffs in the second tier means that even if Andrea Camplone’s side struggle to find their feet, a decent run after Christmas is rewarded with a chance of promotion. For Taddei, that promotion would ensure not just another year on his contract, but another chance to play at a Stadio Olimpico that he has felt is his home for almost a decade.
Nobody could begrudge him that.
