It is Spain’s worst kept secret that FC Barcelona defender Gianluca Zambrotta is not happy at Camp Nou and is looking for a move out. Reports that he and his family cannot settle in the Catalan capital, even after 18 months, is the main reason why local newspapers are suggesting that the Italian international is ready to pack his bags and return to his native country.
Goal.com has quoted an El Mundo Deportivo report suggesting that Zambrotta is to return to Italy inside the next few days. Moreover, the newspaper is convinced that the player will actually go back to Juventus, the club he left for Barca in the wake of the Calciopoli scandal in the summer of 2006.
The Catalan press has been raving on how the former Bari defender would be going back to Italy since the start of this season. The Italian papers believed he would go to AC Milan but expected that to occur only in the summer. But El Mundo’s reports that Zambrotta is set to board the plane from Barcelona to Turin his month is astounding, to say the least.
Barcelona, of course, deny any such transfer speculation mushrooming around the Italian right-back. Yet it is not hard to see that Zambrotta is not a favourite of manager Frank Rijkaard. Zambrotta enjoyed seven successful seasons with Juventus but was modest at best last season in La Liga and has failed to make the starting XIi this season.
It is clear that Barca wouldn’t weep should the player leave; they do have players to fill his shoes.