Mr. Preziosi gave our coach Gian Piero Gasperini the 2 players he wanted the most. A real substitute to Matteo Ferrari who left Genoa to Besiktas (Turkey), 23 years old central defender Andrea Esposito of Lecce. The young defender already was selected this summer by Italian National team coach Lippi to play the match against Northern Ireland. The tall (1.91) and strong (85 kilos) defender was wanted by a lot of Serie A teams and already signed a pre-contract last month with A.S. Roma, but finally choose Genoa.
For years our team missed a real substitute to Ivan Juric, a defensive midfielder with a great tactical vision who can ‘read the match’. In Alberto Zapater the 24 years old captain of Real Zaragoza (Spain) we finally found him. The symbol of Real Zaragoza who was raised in the youth of the club choose Genoa after having several times contact with his former teammate with Zaragoza our topscorer of last year Diego Milito. The midfielder is named El Toro (The Bull) in Spain and was captain of his Spanish team.
Tonight Genoa plays at 18.00 hours against Olympique Nice (Serie A in France).