5 legendary Serie A strikers who should have joined La Liga
The Italian Serie A has historically been the most romantic and cultured of football leagues. The league itself might not have the same level of competition, or be inhabited by the same sort of characters who once made it the most entertaining division around, but it’s getting back to that level once more.
But which legendary Serie A strikers should have opened themselves up to the test of playing in Spain’s La Liga? Which fearless forwards ought to have challenged themselves there to strengthen their legacies even further?
#5 Alessandro Del Piero
A great in his own right, Alessandro Del Piero spent 19 seasons with Juventus in the Serie A and became a club treasure along the way.
As well as guiding them to eight league titles, he was one of the few players who stuck by the team following the Calciopoli scandal which saw the club banished to the second tier, Serie B, as well as being shackled by a points deduction.
To earn promotion, Del Piero banged in 20 strikes and in the process saw his bond with the fans fortify magnificently.
Stylistically, he was a no.10 – a forward who could involve himself in the build-up play as well as being on the finishing end of great team moves. He produced all sorts of marvellous goals (almost 200 in the league and 290 in all for the Old Lady, in fact); bicycle kicks, tap-ins, curled free kicks and wonderful headers because the Serie A was his playground.
However, it would have been fantastic to see him grace the Spanish top tier in his pomp. Seeing him line out in El Clasico derbies or in Copa del Rey finals would have been a magnificent sight, and there can be little doubt he would have been a legend there, too – surprisingly, though, he was never linked to a concrete move in that direction.