Antonio Cassano

Antonio Cassano announced himself to Italian football in 1999, breaking into the senior side of his hometown club Bari as a teenager. His precocious performances earned a transfer to Roma in 2001, where he won the Supercoppa Italiana and was twice named Serie A Young Footballer of the Year, in 2001 and 2003 — remaining the only multiple winner of that AIC award. Nicknamed ‘Il Gioiello di Bari Vecchia’ and ‘Fantantonio’, he was celebrated as one of the most technically gifted forwards of his generation.

In 2006 he joined Real Madrid and collected a Spanish league title before returning to Italy, where Sampdoria restored his form and signed him permanently in 2008. Single seasons with AC Milan and Inter Milan followed, adding a Serie A title and a second Supercoppa Italiana with Milan, before spells at Parma, a Sampdoria return in 2015, and a brief, appearance-free stint at Verona in 2017 that preceded his retirement.

For Italy, Cassano earned 39 caps between 2003 and 2014, scoring 10 goals and finishing as the Azzurri’s joint top scorer in UEFA European Championships history with three goals alongside Mario Balotelli. He played at three European Championships and the 2014 World Cup, winning a runners-up medal at Euro 2012, where his assist set up Mario Balotelli’s famous goal against Germany in the semi-final.

His fiery temperament was so distinctive that coach Fabio Capello coined the word ‘cassanata’ in 2002, now used across Italian sports journalism for behaviour incompatible with team spirit. In a candid 2023 appearance on the ‘Passa dal BSMT’ podcast, he spoke openly about a childhood shaped by hardship in Bari’s old city, his mother’s sacrifices, and the father he walked away from after scoring his first Serie A goal against Inter in December 1999.