Maresca keen to shine at Piacenza

Enzo Maresca, the 22-year-old midfield player, has joined Piacenza FC from the Italian Serie A champions Juventus FC.

Buy-back clause
Piacenza are to pay €2.5m to Juventus for Maresca but the Italian champions will have a clause in the contract allowing them to buy the player back at the end of the season if they wish. “This is a team where I will get the possibility to appear in a good light,” Maresca said.

Versatile midfielder
“I’m very happy about his arrival,” Andrea Agostinelli, the Piacenza coach, said. “Maresca is still very young but has already a great experience and he can play in several roles in midfield. I like those midfielders who are able to use the gaps and go for goals, and he is excellent at that. But he is also good at blocking the opponents in midfield, and that is very important too.”

Spell in England
Born near Salerno in the South of Italy, Maresca joined Milan AC at the age of only eleven. In 1994, he moved to Cagliari Calcio, but after failing to impress he left the Sardinian club to play for England's West Bromwich Albion FC in 1998 where he played 34 First Division matches, scoring four goals.

Serie A winner
In 1999 he returned to Italy and made his Serie A debut for Juventus in his only first-team appearance of the season. After a successful season with Bologna FC the following season, he returned to Juventus in 2001 to win the Italian league title playing 16 matches and scoring once. Due to an injury suffered in a league match against Perugia AC at the beginning of April, Maresca was out of action for two months and missed the UEFA European Under-21 Championship with the Italian national team.