Franck Ribéry joins Salernitana
It's been one of the craziest transfer windows of all time. You'd be hard pressed to find one with the sheer volume of big stars making surprising moves.
The final surprise comes in Serie A with Franck Ribéry joining Salernitana. Who are U.S. Salernitana 1919? Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919 is a football club based in Salerno, Campania. Salerno is a small city about a 45 minute drive south of Naples, passing through the famous city Pompeii on the way down. There's around 140 thousand residents with many fans supporting I Granata (The Garnets).
This isn't the first time Salernitana has played in the Italian top flight, but it is a rarity for them. Most recently the club played in Serie A during the 1998/99 season. Il Granata amassed 38 points and finished 15th out of 18 - only 1 point shy of Perugia who escaped relagation. This was back in the days when 4 teams went down to Serie B. Unlucky!
Sampdoria, Vicenza and last placed Empoli followed them down. It's amazing to think Sampdoria went down given they won the title eight years earlier.
Salernitana play their home matches at Stadio Archi with a capacity of 37,800. The Azzurri have played there three times in their history so as you can sense - big games are rare at the stadium.
Big name former players are scarce too. Standouts include Gennaro Gattuso, Marco Di Vaio and our very own Danny Tiatto. Tiatto joined the club when they were in Serie B back in 1996. He signed on a temporary basis and didn't earn himself a permanent contract. Silver linings though - it paved his way to the UK.
In 2005 the club went bankrupt and ended up reforming. The club changed their name from Salernitana Sport to Salernitana Calcio 1919. The 1919 coming from the year they were originally founded.
The club renamed again in 2012 which was also the year they began their climb back to the top flight. By the time the 2014/15 season hit they were in Serie B - finally making that finally leap back in last season under Fabrizio Castori. Imagine telling Castori last year that Ribery would be part of his plans this season - unreal.
You might ask yourself why is Ribery doing this? The answer must be a love for the country and for playing as much as possible. An elite player in that older category that loves the game and does everything to ensure longevity.
In his first season at Fiorentina Ribery played 21 times. Last year he played 29 times. Not bad for a 38 year old, hey? Stats wise in Florence he managed 5 goals and 10 assists for the struggling member of the Seven Sisters.
He was linked with what would have been a suprising move back to Bayern Munich, but his love for playing saw him end up in the south of Italy. At Salernitana he will have to play and score for them to stay up. That fight is what is keeping the fire going inside him.
He's the main man and then some and its going to be fascinating to see what happens. If he manages to keep them up the club will have the option to give him a one year extension as well.
With so many big names leaving Serie A over the summer, the league will be grateful for this move. Eyes will be on the Torino game this weekend to see if he makes his debut.
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