Leonardo Blanchard was not about to depart Serie A without a proper memento. This has been a chastening season for the 28-year-old, starting most weeks in central defence for a Frosinone side that conceded 76 goals in 38 league games. This was his first-ever taste of the top flight and, with the Canarini relegated in 19th place, might well turn out to be his last.
So who could blame him for wanting to take a little piece of Italian football history with him? Frosinone had, in a funny way, helped to write it – as they were mauled 4-0 by Napoli at San Paolo. Three of the hosts’ goals were scored by Gonzalo Higuaín - enough for him to break Serie A’s single-season scoring record. Blanchard asked the Argentinian if he would be willing to swap shirts afterward.
It was one thing getting Higuaín to consent, and quite another to complete the exchange. As the curtain came down on a famous night in Naples, the striker was in high demand. He had interviews to conduct, hands to shake and applause to milk. Blanchard headed down into the tunnel to wait for him.
Forty minutes later, the Frosinone player was still waiting. Wrapped in a towel, Blanchard refused to take his post-game shower for fear of missing out on this appointment. For him, in the end, this vigil was worth it.
“It was an honour to wait more than half an hour to swap shirts with you,” wrote Blanchard in an Instagram post showing him together with Higuaín outside the changing rooms. “And the same just to try to stop you with sliding tackles on the pitch. Congratulations on entering into the legend of Italian and world football.”
To say that Higuaín had acquired legendary status on Saturday was no exaggeration. By finishing the Serie A season with 36 goals, he had broken a record that stood for 66 years. Many people had believed that the scoring feats of Gunnar Nordahl could never be replicated in the modern Italian game.
The Swede – who scored 35 times for Milan in 1949-50, and then 34 times the following season – belonged to a distant footballing era, back when professionalism was still patchy and the sport picking itself up after the second world war. Prior to joining the Rossoneri in January 1949, Nordahl had worked as a fireman between matches for IFK Norrköping.
In the six-and-half decades after he set his record, only two other players even made it to 30 goals - Antonio Valentin Angelillo at Internazionale in 1958-59, and Fiorentina’s Luca Toni in 2005-06. In more recent seasons, the likes of Juve’s Carlos Tevez, Inter’s Mauro Icardi and Toni (again) had been crowned as capocannoniere with a mere 22 to their name.
Higuaín eclipsed Nordahl’s record despite missing three games due to suspension. His 36 goals arrived at a rate of one for every 82.3 minutes that he spent on the pitch. Best of all, he completed his achievement in style – completing Saturday’s hat-trick with a goal of the season contender, teeing the ball up off his chest before slamming in an overhead kick from the edge of the box.
It is tempting to wonder whether Higuaín would have won the European Golden Shoe this season, if he had only avoided the tantrum against Udinese that provoked his ban last month. As it is, he finishes second only to Luis Suárez.
As TV pundits debated which of the two forwards had been more impressive – the Uruguayan, after all, does have Leo Messi and Neymar as a supporting cast – the crowd at the San Paolo offered up the highest form of praise they could think of, adapting a chant that they once sang for Diego Maradona. “Oh mamma, mamma, mamma, do you know why my heart is beating? I’ve seen Higuaín.”
Will they see him again in Naples next season? The question has hung uncomfortably in the air for many weeks. Napoli are under no immediate pressure to sell, especially after Saturday’s win sealed second place and automatic qualification to the Champions League group stage, but the player’s contract runs through only to 2018 and he is understood to have a €94m release clause written into his deal.
It was not a discussion that Higuaín was interested in getting into on Saturday. “Let’s think about the extraordinary season that we’ve just had,” he told reporters. “This is a satisfaction that not only the team but the whole city deserves.”
The celebrations in Naples were matched by those in Turin, as Juventus were presented with the Scudetto, and Reggio Emilia, where Sassuolo beat Inter 3-1 to secure a sixth-place finish. Unless Milan upset Juventus in Saturday’s Coppa Italia final, the Neroverdi will play in Europe next season.
But the wildest scenes unfolded in Sicily on Sunday night. Palermo had come into this final weekend needing to either beat Verona, or at least equal the result that Carpi got away to Udinese, in order to avoid relegation. So far, so straightforward. Only, this picture was complicated greatly by the perverse incentives within Serie A’s parachute payment system.
Despite being bottom of the table and relegated, Verona ought to have been well motivated to try to beat Palermo – whose owner, Maurizio Zamparini, had accused them of not giving full effort in their match against Frosinone last month. But such considerations were offset by the very sound financial reasons that Verona could have for wanting Carpi to be relegated instead.
Under new rules ratified in February, Serie A provides €10m in parachute payments to any relegated team that has been in the division for just one season, €15m to those that have been in the top flight for two years and €25m to any who had stuck around longer than that. But there is also potential for teams to get even more cash if there is any money left over from the overall €60m pool that the league sets aside for this purpose.
In this instance, Verona (three years in top flight) and Frosinone (one year) had already been relegated before this weekend, meaning that €35m had been assigned between them. If Palermo were to join them in dropping into Serie B, then they would take up all of the remaining money in the pool. But if Carpi were relegated, there would still be €15m left over.
That remaining money would go, in the first instance, to Verona, if they should fail to bounce back to the top-flight at the first attempt. Faced with such a stark financial reality, could they really be expected to go against their own interests?
Perhaps the answer to that question was yes. Because Verona did not go quietly on Sunday at all. After falling behind to a Franco Vázquez goal in the 28th minute, they remained a goal down at half-time. Both teams had seen a player sent off, though it was not especially clear why Pavel Wszolek had been dismissed after Michel Morganella introduced his elbow to the Verona player’s face.
Far from running up the white flag, however, Verona had struck the woodwork twice in that first half, and would equalise within moments of returning from the interval. With Carpi 2-0 up away at Udinese, the tension in the stands of the Barbera was palpable.
Palermo got back in front with strikes from Enzo Maresca and Alberto Gilardino. But there was time yet for another twist. With just over five minutes to go, Verona pulled a goal back through Eros Pisano. The visitors pushed on in search of another. If they truly wanted to lose this game, they were doing a good job of hiding it.
Lose they did, however, just as they have on 19 other occasions this season. The Barbera exploded. Carpi had won 2-1 against Udinese, but Palermo were safe. It has taken an improbable surge, the Rosanero taking 11 points from their final five games after previously taking 28 from their first 33.
The credit must go to Davide Ballardini, who returned to the club in mid-April after being fired at the start of January. Palermo went through six managerial changes in the interim, and a total of eight for the campaign. Ballardini’s triumph was to recognise his own failings. He had frozen Maresca out of the side during his first stint, but made the 36-year-old into a central figure during the late push for survival.
None of which will console Carpi. They had been the form team in the relegation battle since February, with only four defeats in their last 13 games. Despite it all, they fell one point short of an escape that few could have predicted at the start of the year. Unlike Frosinone’s Blanchard, they did not even get a commemorative shirt to show for their efforts.
Talking points
• Carpi supporters were not the only ones with tears in their eyes as the full-time whistle blew at the Dacia Arena. Udinese bid farewell to Antonio Di Natale, at least in a playing sense (he has said that he will talk to the Pozzo family after his summer holiday to discuss possible ways for him to stay involved in the future) after 12 years and 191 league goals for the club – the last of those scored from the penalty spot on Sunday. There have been more technically gifted forwards in Italy over that time but few whom I personally have enjoyed watching more. Di Natale could have played for bigger clubs, but stayed put because he loved his life and his football exactly where he was. That sense of joy was something that came through very clearly in the way that he played. I know I won’t be alone in missing it.
• Miroslav Klose, likewise, marked his final Lazio appearance with a converted spot-kick – albeit he only agreed to take it after fans at the Stadio Olimpico demanded that he do so. Those same supporters put on a rather beautiful tribute to him in the stands, holding up photographs of all his previous goals for the team.
• Hats off to Empoli’s goalkeeper Maurizio Pugliesi, who became the oldest-ever player to make their Serie A debut, at 39 years and five months old. He was not able to mark the occasion with a clean sheet, but did make a couple of useful saves on the way to a 2-1 win over Torino.
• Juventus warmed up for the Coppa Italia final by smashing Sampdoria 5-0. There was a fine strike in there from Paulo Dybala - who ends his first Juventus campaign with 19 league goals and nine assists. But on this occasion, he was outshone in the finishing stakes by Giorgio Chiellini.
• Milan’s league campaign ended on an appropriately dismal note as they lost 3-1 at home to Roma, with Stephan El Shaarawy among the visitors’ goalscorers. Cristian Brocchi held no punches as he tore into his players in the changing room afterwards, though - and although he is much more the symptom than the root of the problems afflicting the club, his own contribution should also be examined. This team is playing worse now than it was under Sinisa Mihajlovic, and it is hard to imagine anything other than a resounding defeat in the Coppa Italia final.
• One more note to add on Palermo’s win: by scoring Gilardino moved up alongside Alessandro Del Piero and Giuseppe Signori in joint-ninth on Serie A’s all-time scoring charts.
Results: Chievo 0-0 Bologna, Empoli 2-1 Torino, Genoa 1-2 Atalanta, Juventus 5-0 Sampdoria, Lazio 2-4 Fiorentina, Milan 1-3 Roma, Napoli 4-0 Frosinone, Palermo 3-2 Verona, Sassuolo 3-1 Inter, Udinese 1-2 Carpi
