Witters Sport-USA TODAY Sports
Norwich City of the English Premier League were today linked with Juventus striker Fabio Quagliarella, with manager Chris Hughton refusing to rule out a possible bid for the Italian.
Already this summer, the Canaries have had their move for Ricky van Wolfswinkel confirmed and brought Englishman Gary Hooper to the club just a few days ago. Both transfers hint at a club ready to push forward and cement their position in English soccer’s top tier.
If Norwich were to sign Quagliarella, it would be a real show of intent from a team who managed to just about pull away from the relegation battle at the end of last season. If they could add the Italian, perhaps fans at Carrow Road could be excused for aiming their expectations a little higher than normal.
Quagliarella is a player with vast experience of Italian football, playing for Torino, Napoli, Sampdoria and Udinese before arriving at Juventus in 2010. Last season, he scored 13 times in 34 games as the Old Lady finished top of Serie A, the second time Quagliarella has won the Italian league in two seasons.
He also has a good amount of international experience, hitting seven goals in 25 appearances for Italy since making his debut in March 2007 against Scotland in a Euro 2008 qualifier. Quagliarella then did enough to be included in the Italians’ final squads for that European Championship, as well as the 2009 Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup.
In the latter tournament, Quagliarella scored against Slovakia as Italy slid ignominiously out of the competition at the group stage.
Were he to join the strike force at Carrow Road, Norwich fans would be presented with someone who has scored goals at every club he has played for. And, given he is still just 30 years old, Quagliarella would still have plenty left to give for the Canaries.
Chris Teale is a British-American multi-sport writer for Rant Sports. You can follow him on Twitter here or view his writer’s page here.
