By Halgeir Tomter Thoresen
Borini has played for Rodgers at Chelsea’s reserve team and on loan in Swansea. After a short spell in Parma and a season in Roma is he yet again set to work with Rodgers. There is no doubt that Rodgers believes that the Italian striker has potential to become a world class striker. Did you know that Borini once said “Rodgers is a good manager and a great person who knows me very well, he is like an uncle to me”
Fabio Borini started his career at the club he supported as a kid. The club I’m talking about is Bologna. He joined their youth team in 2001, at the age of 9. After 6 years in Bologna, he joined Chelsea in 2007 as a 16 years old kid. Very impressive after only played football for 6 years.
With Rodgers as manager he scored 10 goals from 11 appearances for Chelsea’s reserves in his first season. The first time he was included for the 1st team was when he made the bench against Porto in Champions league in September 2009. His debut for Chelsea came in Champions league two months later when he came on as a substitute against Apoel.
Even that he got 4 appearances for Chelsea, will their fans remember him best after he scored 5 goals in their 5-4 win over WBA in the reserve league.
In 2011 Rodgers sign the Italian on loan from Chelsea. He got 9 appearances for Swansea in Championship, and scored 6 goals. One of them was a fantastic free kick. After his short spell in Swansea he sign for Parma, but before he made any appearances for them he joined Roma on loan, and later on a permanent deal.
In his first and probably last season in Roma he got 24 appearances and scored 9 goals in Serie A. He also got 2 games in the Italian cup. Both as a late substitute, but he still manage to score in both matches.
He have played 14 games for Italy’s under 21 and scored 3 goals. He have also got his debut for Italy’s national team, when he got 32 minutes against USA, and did very well. He actually did so well that he earned himself a place in Prandelli’s Euro 2012 squad.
I know that most of the Liverpool fans haven’t seen much of him. Maybe just on youtube, so I’m going to try to put a little sense into the move.
From what I saw of him at Roma last season, Borini reminded me a bit of Alexandre Pato. He has good pace, plenty of technique, and an impressive eye for goal especially in tight quarters/awkward positions. He is versatile, and can lead the attack as a primary striker, or play off the main man (probably his best position now) as either a second striker or a winger. He wins the ball on the opponents half very often, because of his fantastic work rate. He always works hard for his team and gives 100% trough out the match. As he explains his goal celebrations: “In Italy it means you’ve got the knife between your teeth – it’s when you want to achieve something so badly that you are angry to reach your goals”.
I think if the reports are true that we have sign the lad for €10m, then it is a bargain considering what king Kenny paid for Henderson, Downing and Carroll, though I really hope that Rodgers keep big Andy cause Borini is definitely thrive playing off someone like Carroll.
Considering Borini’s age and potential I think that the reds have a lot to look forward to.