One is close to 100 thousand inhabitants, Udine, the other does not reach 50 thousand, Empoli. Udinese has now been in Serie A continuously for 29 consecutive seasons. Fabrizio Corsi’s Club never made it to its fourth appearance in a row. Two realities that are essentially opposites, therefore, but which this season find themselves separated by just one point in the standings in favor of the Friulian Bianconeri and on Sunday afternoon they will be facing each other to play for important chances of survival. But beyond these objective data, Udinese and Empoli could not be more different also when it comes to management policy.
Pozzo’s club is a true multinational with just 3 Italians in the squad compared to the 26 foreigners found in the most remote corners of the world: in fact, 16 different nationalities are represented in the dressing room led by Cannavaro. Even this year the Friulians also took the field with 11 foreigners. Rather than focusing on young Italians, the only exception is Lucca taken on loan from Pisa after his experience in the Netherlands with Ajax, the Juventus scouting system fishes for unknown foreigners to be exploited and perhaps resold with a large capital gain, but not always donuts succeed with the hole. The Italian team’s thinking is diametrically opposed, focusing mainly on young Italians on the rise or even more experienced players, perhaps looking for a relaunch, but almost always of Italian nationality. If in the Juventus squad 89 percent of the players cannot be called up by the Italian coach Luciano Spalletti, as regards the one led by Nicola it drops to 50 percent: 14 foreigners out of 28 belonging to 10 different nationalities. And at most, this season, only 5 have taken the field together since the start.
The Italian club has in fact become an example to follow, even at a national level, especially for the investments made in its youth sector, from where it draws heavily. Just to mention some of the latest talents who grew up in Monteboro and then launched into the first team, and then made the leap to other important places, we remember Ricci, Asllani and Baldanzi with Fazzini who will soon be destined to increase this list. However, football is played in many ways and, of course, there is neither a wrong nor a right one. And above all, none of these aspects will count on Sunday on the pitch, where instead other factors will be needed to try to prevail. Meanwhile, after the initiative of the free coupons of the Unione Clubs Azzurri, the Empoli fans responded in a big way so much so that there could be almost 500 of them at the Bluenergy Stadium in Udine.
