Juventus Target Gianluca Lapadula a Name to Watch During Summer Transfer Window

The 2016/17 season will see Pescara back in Serie A, the Abruzzo-based club returning to the top flight after a three-year absence.

Led by coach Massimo Oddo, it marks just the seventh time they have earned promotion from the second tier, finishing in fourth place but emerging victorious from the play-offs.

A World Cup winner in 2006, the former AC Milan and Lazio defender follows in the footsteps of Zdenek Zeman, who steered the Delfini to their last brief spell at the peak of Italian football. That came back in 2012, with the Czech native harnessing the talents of Marco Verratti, Lorenzo Insigne and Ciro Immobile.

Each of those players has gone on to enjoy success elsewhere, but the trio were virtual unknowns back then, the latter ending the 2011/12 campaign as top scorer in Serie B with 28 goals.

The same honour was claimed by a Pescara player this time around, with Gianluca Lapadula netting 30 times in 43 appearances for a club he only joined in July 2015.

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His explosion has seen him garner much interest, with Sky Sport Italia (h/t Football Italia) reporting this week that club president Daniele Sebastiani will hold meetings with Juventus, Napoli and AC Milan as the three Serie A giants have expressed an interest in the player.

The report states that he could then subsequently be sent on loan to Genoa or Sassuolo, but a number of other clubs are also believed to be paying close attention to the situation. Premier League champions Leicester City were expected to make a move, but La Gazzetta dello Sport (h/t TalkSport) insist Napoli are in pole position.

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“I don’t know many players on the planet who’d turn down Napoli,” Lapadula’s agent Gianluca Libertazzi told Radio Kiss Kiss (h/t Football Italia) this week, appearing to hand the Stadio San Paulo outfit the initiative. “It’s a big club and on top of that a wonderful city. The fact that a player like Gonzalo Higuain chose them says it all.”

Yet Pescara owner Sebastiani appears to be unwilling to rule out the other clubs, revealing that Milan have begun to discuss a potential deal but telling the Milan News website (h/t Football Italia) that a number of issues stand in their way:

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I can confirm there was a meeting, because they [Milan] asked for information about Lapadula. They’ve expressed their interest, but it’s clear they have to make sales to get it done, because they have a lot of players in that role, so first they’ll have to trim and then a player can come in.

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There are a number of factors that make this battle to sign him particularly intriguing; with his career path arguably secondary to the fact he is already 26 years old. Pescara are his 11th club as a professional, never spending more than a single season with any of them and only scoring in double figures three times in total.

Even more surprising is going back to where it all began. Born in Turin in February 1990, Lapadula joined the Juventus youth sector as a 12-year-old, his stint lasting less than two seasons before the Bianconeri cut him loose amid concerns over his academic studies.

That saw him forced to seek an opportunity elsewhere, spending time with Treviso, Pro Vercelli and Ivrea before landing at Parma in the summer of 2009. Loan spells with seven different teams would follow as Lapadula bounced around the peninsula’s lower divisions, including fruitless stints with Ravenna, Cesena and Frosinone.

Interspersed with these were some slightly more successful campaigns, with his 2011/12 season at San Marino seeing something of a breakout year. Bagging 24 goals in 35 games, his next notable period came in 2013/14 when he scored 11 times in 28 appearances for Slovenian Prva Liga side ND Gorica.

The following season saw Lapadula grab 25 goals for Teramo in Lega Pro, the third tier of Italian football. That—combined with Parma being declared bankrupt—led to the move to his current side, and it seems that things have finally begun to fall into place for the 5’10" forward.

Still owned by the Ducali, Pescara were fully aware of his exploits with Teramo as the two clubs are separated by just over 60 kilometres. The Delfini swooped in to snap him up once he was declared a free agent, and he made the most of that opportunity as his coach explained to La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“He’s very strong and improved on his limitations, which was when he didn’t have the ball,” Oddo said (h/t Gazzetta World). “A mid-table team in Serie A targeting him would make the purchase of a lifetime. I’m preparing for life after Lapadula, but the others will stay.”

The Pescara boss was happy to heap even more praise on his star man in a later interview with Tuttosport, telling them he believed Antonio Conte should consider the striker for a place at this summer’s UEFA European Championship (h/t Italian Football Daily):

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At 1.82m, he is not very tall but he has incredible physical strength. For me, he is more than ready for Serie A, but for a great team. He could also go to the Euro’s, he has nothing to envy in all respect to the other strikers. This is a compliment towards him. I am not discrediting the others. For me, he has features different from the other attackers who are in the national team.

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That obviously did not happen, yet the player has also turned down an opportunity to play for Peru—who he is also eligible to represent—as his agent explained in an interview with Sky Sports Italia this week.

“He has never been to Peru, as he was born and raised in Italy,” Gianluca Libertazzi said (h/t Football Italia). “His mother is Peruvian, but he feels Italian and did not want to accept the call-up from Peru purely to take advantage of the opportunity. He doesn’t know the language well, let alone the country.”

Perhaps the feature of his game that has brought Lapadula so much attention is his movement in the opposition penalty area, appearing to be constantly in motion as he looks for an opening, while he is also surprisingly effective in the air given his lack of height.

That was evident in his goal against Spezia back in April (seen in the tweet above), comfortably outjumping his marker—the vastly experienced Claudio Terzi—who simply fell to the floor and complained to the referee.

Oddo demanded his forwards pressed opponents last term which Lapadula proved to be extremely well-suited to, possessing both the energy and desire to harass defenders into making mistakes. Yet he still pressed forward at every opportunity, scoring all variety of goals but with a penchant for the kind of spectacular effort he bagged against Cesena.

Tightly marked by two defenders on the edge of the box, Lapadula ensured he stayed onside as Cristian Pasquato—another Juventus youth product—floated the ball in his direction. As can be seen in the video below, he timed his run to perfection, turned and rifled home a superb overhead kick that the goalkeeper had little hope of stopping.

Moments like that have enticed scouts from across the continent to the Stadio Adriatico, with president Sebastiani noting that observers from Leicester and Tottenham Hotspur “have been to Pescara several times,” according to ITA Sport Press (h/t Sam Long of the London Evening Standard).

Given his age and talk of an immediate loan to Sassuolo, it would appear that Juventus see the 26-year-old as a bargaining chip on the transfer market rather than a genuine target, a player they do not need but could send elsewhere in order to help sign someone they do want further down the line.

Whatever happens, a remarkable season with Pescara has brought Lapadula’s name to the forefront of discussions this summer, and it will be interesting to see where the eye-catching striker lands ahead of next term.