World Cup winning striker turned down Tottenham Hotspur

Giuseppe Iaquinta hit out yesterday at the Serie A Champions for their lack of fairness towards his son.

“We have been polite, respectful, and yet Juve and the President do not say a word. When Juve were going through a bad period, Vincenzo was there for them. And then when he suffered some bad injuries, he was shut out like a rookie.

"In the past, before the injuries, we rejected the likes of Zenit St. Petersburg and Tottenham, for the sake of Juventus.

“Where we are going we do not know. At the moment, he trains on his own. But we have never been hostile to Juve.”

Juventus can ill-afford any stragglers nowadays, as they race to compete with Europe's best. But a disappointing summer where all they were able to do up front was pick up Nicklas Bendtner crystalised their shotcomings in the transfer market.

Iaquinta now is 32, and surely has no way back, as he runs down the last year of his contract.

Back in 2006 he was one of Italy's go to strikers as they began their victorious World Cup campaign. He scored in their group match against Ghana, and also featured in both the semi-final against Germany and the final against France. He also played a minor part at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

However injuries really have ruined his career of late, seeing him slip down the Juve pecking order, and last season he didn't feature once. His only action was on loan at Cesena where he scored once in seven games.

So perhaps he should have gone to Tottenham after all? Now it is unlikely he will be of interest to a club with Spurs' ambition, at 32 they will want to snap up a more dynamic younger striker without his recent injury issues.

Did they miss out he turned them down? Perhaps, but then again they have just have saved themselves a big medical bill.

Here he is scoring against Chelsea in 2009...

 

image: © warrenski