Ciro Immobile: A “Juventus Bomber” Future for the Serie B Topscorer?

In recent years, Juventus have signed a number of top teenagers to the youth squad to bolster the team. Players like Antonio Nocerino, Raffaele Palladino, and Domenico Criscito (all from the Napoli region) joined the Primavera at a relatively late age, to add to the homegrown products like Claudio Marchisio, Sebastian Giovinco, and Paolo De Ceglie who would eventually integrate the Old Lady at the Senior level. Indeed, despite the accepted trend that youngsters aren’t given enough of a chance by top clubs in Italy, focus on the Settore Giovanile side of things has always been Juve’s mandate, as exemplified by the team’s extremely positive record in Viareggio tournaments.

After great years in the early 2000s however, the Juventus youth teams have had a bit of a lull. In 2008, with young Alberto Libertazzi the only available option at the club, the Bianconeri’s Primavera was in need of a “bomber“. Juve scouts thus began scouring the peninsula for talent, and coincidentally, found just what they were looking for in a match featuring our punching bag-cousins Torino. Scoring an impressive double against the Granata youth side, a young striker from Serie C2 side A.S. Sorrento Calcio piqued Juve’s interest. Just to make sure he had the Turin giants’ undivided attention, that same forward would go on to score 30 goals for Sorrento’s Allievi (U-17) side that season. The player’s name was Ciro Immobile.

Juventus Primavera

Much as he does at the senior level, Beppe Marotta brought his “loan transfer” strategy to Juve’s youth teams as well, with examples like Niccolò Giannetti and Marcel Büchel arriving from Siena in the director’s first year at the club. While already in existence before Marotta’s arrival (in 2009, Alessio Secco brought in striker Manuel Fischnaller on loan from Serie C2), this loaning approach was not employed with Ciro Immobile: the Torre Annunziata-native was signed outright & in full, and immediately put at the disposal of then-Primavera coach Massimiliano Maddaloni.

Ciro Immobile did not disappoint in his tenure with the Juventus Primavera: in two years, he managed to equal the goal record (14) of one player in the prestigious Viareggio competition. In his second year, he banged in 10 goals at the Tuscan event with a hat-trick against Empoli in the final. Immobile was given the Golden Boy award for best player of the tournament, and despite not many games for the U-20 Azzurrini squad, was one of the hottest young players in the peninsula. He would finish the 2009 calendar year with 26 goals.

In 2009-10, Ciro Ferrara was named coach of Juventus. Previously the coordinator of the Juventus youth sector, Ferrara of course knew his fellow Neapolitan namesake well. The coach fielded Immobile for the Senior team in a number games, the most surprising being a UEFA Champions League appearance against Bordeaux (lost by Juventus 2-0). Ferrara later threw the player on against Atalanta, in the game where David Trezeguet equaled Omar Sivori’s record as best goalscorer in Juve’s “foreigners” category. Certainly great inspiration for young Ciro to follow…

The Serie B adventure

Immobile’s match against Atalanta was very impressive: though he only had 5-6 minutes on the pitch, he had two very good opportunities on goal and won a corner. on July 1st, 2010, along with another great young talent (Luca Marrone), Ciro was sent on loan to Siena under a certain Antonio Conte, hoping to gain some first-team experience among the seniors.

The player’s first game was marred with a red card, and it wasn’t until November 20th that Immobile scored his first Serie B goal, the team’s fourth in a 4-1 victory against Portoguaro. Immobile did not get much space at Siena however, and chose to leave again to go on loan to Grosseto. Grosseto would also prove to be tough, as despite more appearances (many of them as a substitute) the forward would likewise only score 1 goal in the second half of a difficult 2009-10 season.

Immobile’s first year of Serie B wasn’t very successful, but there was still a lot the player learned from his first few professional appearances. Though he played very little under Antonio Conte at the Tuscan club, Immobile spoke very positively of the experience:

Antonio Conte taught me a lot, to have had him at Siena was very important to me in terms of experience. He’s a type who speaks a lot to his players, also outside the pitch. When I was in the process of leaving Siena last January, I spoke with him and he said he was very disappointed I was leaving. The fact he said that made me very proud, because it meant he believed in me.

Enter Pescara & Cigarette-Smoking Man

If there’s one thing we know about the development of youth players, it is that sending them to the right squad is absolutely crucial. In 2009-10, Alessio Secco sent talented young Iago Falqué to Bari, a team that not only didn’t suit his characteristics at all, but which also placed him into the team’s Primavera instead of the senior team, a giant step back for the Galician. While Siena and Grosseto didn’t work out for Immobile, Marotta nailed it this Summer, when he sent the young player out to Pescara under the guidance of a certain Zdenek Zeman.

Zeman is known for two things: his virulent anti-Juventus tirades, and his love for high scorelines. After a brief stint at Lecce in 2006 (in last appearance in Italy for a while), and an ever briefer one at Red Star Belgrade (2008), Zeman returned to the world of calcio in 2010 at Foggia, the very same team he did his magic at in the early 90s. Despite his team finished with the highest goalscoring ratio among all Italian professional leagues, the club missed out on promotion finishing 6th, leading to Zeman’s departure at the end of the season. The following year Il Boemo took control of Pescara, and thus far has transformed a side that finished 13th last year into a promotion favorite, with Ciro Immobile becoming one of the team’s pillars.

Immobile was given a starting shirt on the first matchday against Verona, and scored on his debut in a 2-1 away win. He followed it with a brace against Empoli and scored in his 3rd game in a row with a goal against Modena in a 3-2 loss. Immobile has been to the go-to striker for Pescara all year long, as noted by his stunning winning goal against Gubbio (the Biancoazzurri had played most of the game with 10 men) and his a hat-trick (with one goal wrongly chalked off for offside) against Juve arch-rivals Torino. Signing Immobile was a gamble for Zeman as well, as the striker had only scored 2 professional goals in his entire career.

Immobile’s beautiful goal vs. Gubbio
(Pescara 2-1 Gubbio, 19 November 2011)

With the exception of one game (Pescara’s 2-0 win at Empoli) Immobile has scored in EVERY ONE of his team’s matches since the new year, including two doubles against Nocerina and Verona!! This exceptional scoring rate (18 goals in 23 games) has put the Neapolitan striker firmly in command of Serie B’s classifica marcatori (topscoring charts), a tremendous feat for a young player in Italy and particularly impressive, given Immobile only managed one goal for each of his prior teams in Serie B.

What’s Next?

The question everyone is asking is: can Ciro Immobile follow in the footsteps of the great Juve forwards, and become a tried & true Bianconero “bomber”?

In this elite category of people, one often thinks of the likes of John Charles, Paolo Rossi, David Trezeguet… Yet in terms of playing characteristics, the former Sorrento striker is actually very similar to Alessandro Matri: pace, muscular strength, decent dribbling ability, a good shot, and a great eye for goal.

At this point, it is hard to say whether Immobile will return to Juventus and be our new bomber. The most obvious warning story would not be Sebastian Giovinco or Michele Paolucci, but rather someone far more similar. Raffaele Palladino (also from the Napoli region) was signed by Juventus after playing for his local side Benevento. After banging in 41 goals for the Primavera in two seasons, Palladino went on loan to Serie B side Salernitana and scored an impressive 15 goals in 39 appearances. Despite a great early promise it’s safe to say Palladino has not quite lived up to his hype: rather than a consistent bomber, he’s now known as a talented yet inconsistent striker, doing his trade between the first team and the bench at mid-table team Parma.

There’s definitely plenty of differences, of course. Palladino generally played the seconda punta role, offering creativity and vision as his main attribute instead of goals, though he eventually extended his CV with a winger role (as was seen in his first and only season under Claudio Ranieri where he played as an alternative to Pavel Nedved). Ciro Immobile is much more of a finisher than creator. Like Alessandro Matri, he has pace, physical strength in abundance, and a great eye to poach.

At 21 years of age, there’s a lot of time for Ciro to gain experience before coming back to Juventus. Under Antonio Conte, Juventus have typically played with only one bomber up top (with Mirko Vucinic more wide and cutting in), a role that would not suit Immobile. The forward’s role is currently occupied by Alessandro Matri, and further increased in competition with the arrival of Marco Borriello. While it’s far from certain whether Borriello, Matri, Conte, or even Conte’s one-striker formation will be still around when Immobile’s time to return arrives, for now the forward simply has to keep doing what he’s doing. Scoring, improving, and progressively getting more Serie A & B experience.

Only time will tell whether Immobile is indeed the new Matri, or the new Tavano.