You! Yes, you! You’re a fan of idiosyncratic freekick specialists with brilliant hair and questionable temperaments, right? Right! Who isn’t? Anyway, some good news this morning: Alessandro Diamanti, Italian international and West Ham cult hero, is coming back to the Premier League.
Alessandro Diamanti is coming back to England!
West Ham cult hero and all-round entertainer Alessandro Diamanti has joined Watford on loan. Here’s why he’s brilliant.
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He becomes Watford’s 11th signing of the season, and hopefully at some point they play them all at the same time, bringing the Ship of Theseus problem up to date for a new generation. Until then, here are our favorite things about Diamanti ...
1. The freekicks
In his one season in England, Diamanti scored seven goals in 30 games for West Ham. Here he is placing a perfect freekick past future England goalkeeper Joe Hart:
And here’s a better angle (albeit slightly worse video) of that goal. Perfection:
2. The hair
Creative Commons: Egghead06 on Wikipedia
3. The nickname
Diamanti’s nickname is “Alino”, which more-or-less translates as “Little Alex.” This is despite the fact that he is 5’11. Perhaps it’s a reference to ... no, no, let’s leave that one there.
4. The celebrations
Players that look absolutely furious when they celebrate are, by an order of some considerable magnitude, better than players who merely look happy. With that in mind, here’s Diamanti absolutely raging at a freekick he’s just scored. We don’t know why: It looks like a decent effort to us.
5. The negotiation style
Having knocked around Serie B and C for the early part of his career, Diamanti’s move to West Ham came after two seasons at Livorno. But they were reluctant to sell him, a reluctance that was only overcome when (a) West Ham agreed to pay £5.5m and (b) Diamanti, according to the club’s sporting director:
begged us in tears to let him join West Ham.
Not a sentiment you hear often.
6. The freekicks, again
Go on then. One more:
Welcome back, Alessandro.
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