For those of you who regularly read this site you will know I have recently fallen in love with Serie A again. I have decided to look back at my ‘Football Italia’ days in the 90s & early this decade & focus on players that grabbed my attention. I have managed to keep it to five. The other four will be Paolo Maldini, Angelo Peruzzi, George Weah & Hidetoshi Nakata. Players of mention I may come back to later are Roberto Baggio, Pavel Nedved, Marco Van Basten, Ivan Zamarano, Giuseppe Signori, Franco Baresi & Gabriel Batistuta. But first off I will start with Francesco Moriero.

I remember him vaguely at Roma, but in all honesty its his three years between 97-00 at Inter Milan I remember best for. He was a right winger full of tricks & direct. He was also a bit injury prone. With Inter he won the UEFA Cup in 1998. That same year he went to France 98′ World Cup with Italy, for his nation he won eight caps & scored twice.

He was world class & he never reached his full potential, as he suffered from injuries & lack of consistent form. He also had players like Roberto Donadoni & Angelo Di Livio to try & get ahead of to an Azzuri shirt! I would say a similar type these days would be Alessandro Diamanti of Brescia.

So why a hero?

Well he was full of tricks & for a youngster who would love that thing I took to him. He also seem to also want the ball & play with a smile on his face from the first minute to the last. His crossing ability was also very underrated. He worked hard for Inter & thats not a thing associated with a show boat. Moments that stand out for me in from watching him are: At one point in a derby with Milan, Moriero had his back to goal at the corner flag area, not a lot of room with the great Franco Baresi touch tight close. Well any average or less imaginative player would try to turn & fire the ball off the defender for a throw-in or corner… Not Francesco, he start to do a few keepie-ups before overhead kicking a cross into the box! Absolute genius! Then there is the goal celebration he came up with called the shoe shine… You all know it the goalscorer puts his foot on a team mates knee & gets it imaginarily polished! Now it may have been done before but I credit him for it.

There is also an amazing bicycle kick against Swiss side Neuchatêl Xamax in the UEFA Cup which you can see on YouTube.

Now he was not at his best for as long as Paolo Maldini but for the years at Inter Francesco Moriero truly was a hero for me. His perm also made him standout!

Francesco Moriero also played for Lecce, Cagliari, Roma & Napoli.

He is currently an unemployed coach after being sacked as head coach of Serie B side Gosseto.

Posted on March 5th, 2011 by scott
Filed under: Serie A Heroes