Antonio Cassano

Antonio Cassano (born June 12, 1982 in Bari, Italy) is a footballer who plays for club side A.S. Roma and the Italian national team. He plays primarily as a striker or hole (Italian: fantasista or trequartista).

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Cassano made his Italian league debut in 1999 for Bari against local rivals Lecce, and a week later scored a superb goal against Inter Milan, one of the clubs who had courted Cassano before he had eventually signed professionally with his home-town club.

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The top clubs in Italy each kept a close eye on Cassano, and with rumours of a pre-contract agreement having been signed with Roma, the player eventually signed for the then Serie A champions in the summer of 2001. The transfer fee of around ?28m, was at that time a huge amount to pay for a player who was still only 19 years old - Juventus president Luciano Moggi said at the time: "Cassano is a real talent, but ?28m for a player of his age is excessive. It's too soon to understand exactly how much he is worth."

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Cassano's first season at Roma produced only five goals, but as he developed his game he began to come to the attention of those in charge of the national side, culminating in a scoring debut for Italy in November 2003, against Poland. He went on to make the squad for , scoring in two out of Italy's three matches.

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Controversy has continually trailed Cassano as his numerous spats with coaches at club and international level will attest. His relationship with former Roma coach Fabio Capello was a fractious one - the pair fell out over Cassano's omission from a practice match days after his international debut - but Capello has himself since moved on to Juventus.

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In the 2004/2005 Cassano showed his controverse behaviour to its greater extent: after the resignation of Cesare Prandelli because of personal reasons, he had a resounding quarrel with replacement Rudi Voeller for a month long, until Voeller resigned because of poor results.

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On 31 December 2004, in one of the really rare interviews allowed by Cassano, he claimed to miss his former coach Fabio Capello, considered by Cassano "like a father".

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During the following of the season, he had even been out of squad by Luigi Del Neri, who had been the third AS Roma coach during the season, before being replaced by Bruno Conti on a disastrous season for the giallorossi.

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Right since the 2005/2006 pre-season, with Roma coached by former Udinese trainer Luciano Spalletti, Cassano has continuously shown some bitterness for the club, especially at the highest levels, because of economical issues about a renewal of his contract, which will expire in 30 June 2006. Many sports columnists claimed that Cassano could leave Roma in order to join Juventus, and his former coach Fabio Capello, but it did not happen for now.

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Cassano is nicknamed Peter Pan and wears the number 18 jersey for his club.

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June 12: June 12 is the 163rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (164th in leap years), with 202 days remaining....

1982: 1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar....

Bari: Bari is the second largest continental city of Southern Italy, with a population of 326,201 (2001) along 116 sq. km. It serves as the capital of the Apulia (or Puglia) region, on the Adriatic Sea, and also as the capital of the Province of Bari....

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