Immobile: "Only Pio Esposito can have the career I had. In Italy, managers want playmakers and not goalscorers"
The now former striker has identified the Inter forward as his potential heir.
Ciro Immobile is no longer playing. The Italian striker announced his retirement only a few days ago and, in an interview with So Foot today, he spoke about the state of strikers in Italian football, setting out the problems he believes exist in the game and naming Pio Esposito as his only potential heir for goals.
The problems of Italian football: "You have to enjoy yourselves"
The problem in Italy is the foundations, the infrastructure. A team like Paris FC have a modern stadium where fans are welcomed properly and can create a special atmosphere. If Lazio had a stadium like the ones in Strasbourg and Lyon, everything would change.
In Italy we are behind in this respect.
Most of what I know, I learned in the street when I was a kid. I know times have changed, that young people no longer play in the street: it is a phrase heard a thousand times, but today’s players and tomorrow’s players need to keep firmly in mind that the aim remains to have fun, wherever you decide to play
No one has my numbers from when I was young
"In our game today there is nobody putting up the kind of numbers I did when I was winning the scoring charts, even though I had to go up against people like Higuain and Toni, who scored with his eyes closed. When I started out, even Genoa's striker got 12 or 13 goals with ease, as did Maccarone, Di Michele and Lucarelli, who were playing for Siena, Livorno or Palermo. For all of them it was normal."
Managers want an advanced playmaker, not a striker
"But perhaps today it's the managers who want different things, seeing the striker first and foremost as an advanced playmaker rather than a goalscorer. In the past, strikers were expected to finish moves, to put the ball in the net. Today, a manager is happy if the striker has brought the team into play, whether he scores or not"
Pio Esposito can reach me
"The only one who seems to me capable of following my path is Pio Esposito, but even he looks first for the decisive move rather than the out-and-out goal."
