Edin Dzeko's Move To Manchester Represents a Calcio Failure

These last few days have seen Manchester City complete the signing of Edin Dzeko, the highly rated Bosnian striker from German club side Wolfsburg. After four highly successful seasons with the German outfit, where Dzeko scored a club record 59 goals in 96 appearances and helped the club to its first ever Bundesliga title success, it is the City of Manchester Stadium that will be the player’s new home.

But Manchester City was not the player’s first choice of destination. In the days before the deal with Manchester City was completed, Dzeko had made it clear that he wanted to play for Juventus, after he pleaded publicly for the Italian giants to sign him.

It was not only Juventus that were keen to sign the former Wolfsburg ace. Last summer and as early back as the summer before, it was AC Milan who seemed in pole position for the players’ signature. The Milan giants, much like Juventus, failed in their bid to lure the striker to the peninsula as a result of their unwillingness to meet the players’ 40 million euro release clause.

Subsequently, it was Manchester City, a club determined to buy any star player they can get their hands on—whether they are needed or not—that intervened in the 11th hour to land the Bosnian star’s signature.

The outcome of this transfer saga represents an abject failure of Italian football to procure one of the latest up and coming stars of the game. For Calcio, the arrival of such a player would have been met with wild enthusiasm. It would have also been a reassuring sign for fans of Calcio that the Serie A is still a competition that attracts some of the world’s best players. But, this was not to be the case, as yet again Italian clubs have lost out to their more financially able European rivals.

The final result of this saga also reflects the state of the modern game where money, and not club prestige and history, matters more. After all, Manchester City are a club that pales in comparison to the illustrious histories of Milan or Juventus.

Dzeko, however, cannot be blamed for this. The player made it clear that he wanted to join Juventus and he was even keen to join Milan last summer when it was the Rossoneri who were most eager to land his services. But in a football world where there are many middle men scrounging for a slice of the pie, what a player wants seemingly matters little compared amount of euro’s on offer.

Nonetheless, with the reality of modern football put aside, the failure of Juventus and Milan to land this growing star of the game is impermissible.  The presence of Dzeko in the Juventus side would have significantly increased the competitiveness of the Old Lady, a side still rebuilding from their Calciopoli punishment from 2006. He is the kind of player that had the potential to be a major and positive impact for Juventus and Italian football in general.

But now, Dzeko will join a Manchester City side already teeming with want-a-way strikers like Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli. The Bosnian’s arrival at City will only yet add another striker who is reluctant about his presence in the blue half of Manchester.

Nevertheless, one hopes that Dzeko will settle in Manchester to become a star and fulfil his amazing potential. Though Serie A may be at a loss without Dzeko, football will not be if the Bosnian ace can prove himself in arguably the world’s strongest league and for a club very much on the rise.