The mass exodus of Italian players

Since Italy's triumph last year there have been a lot more Italian players moving out of the country to apply their trade somewhere else. With the calciopoli scandal, it saw a few big names and World Cup winners depart from their teams to another country. Spain was the most predominant country as Cannavaro, Zambrotta and Tavano all left to get a taste of La Liga. Corradi on the other hand left to go England which saw him have a dreadful year at Manchester City.

As the transfer window has drawn to a close, it has seen no less than 11 players leave Italy and only 6 returning to their country. Serie A has never seen such a mass exodus of Italian players for many years now.

The biggest names to have left Italy are Italy's two World Cup winners Luca Toni and Fabio Grosso. Toni left Fiorentina for Bayern Munich where he has hit fine form scoring in almost every game so far. Grosso decided to go try out the french lifestyle as he is now playing his football with Lyon, after spending a year at Inter.

Cristiano Lucarelli and Rolando Bianchi are two of the many fowards that have left. Lucarelli took a brave decision by moving to Ukraine to play for Shaktar Donetsk. He scored his first goal last weekend and will make a trip to Italy sooner than he expected as Shaktar will be playing Milan in the group stages of this season's Champions League.

Bianchi on the other hand joined fellow Italian Bernardo Corradi at Man City, only for Corradi to return to Italy. Bianchi has been in fine form and scored on his premiership debut for City.

Following on the path of the forwards, we see two very young Italians leave. Guiseppe Rossi leaves Italy once again to a team that has finally decided to keep hold of him for a few years, he moved to Spain to play for the yellow submarines of Villareal.

Graziano Pelle, moved from Serie B to almost dutch champions AZ Alkmaar where he will be coached by one of the greatest coaches around Van Gaal.

As the young stars leave so does the old. Veteran Cristain Riganó couldn't help save Messina from relegation last season so he decied to take a move to Levante where he was joined by Milan goalkeeper Marco Storari, who is on loan to the Spanish outfit.

Fellow goalkeepers Morgan De Scantis and Christian Abbiati also opted for Spain as they will be be playing for Sevilla and Atletico Madrid respectively.

While their has been many forwards and goalkeepers in demand midfielder Massimo Donati has not been forgotten as he has gone to Scotland where he has been great for Celtic.

As Serie A says goodbye to these stars they welcome back Fabrizio Miccoli who has left Benfica after 2 years on loan to join Palermo. He was greeted with open arms by the Sicilians. Another player who returns after being away for a while is Alessio Tacchinardi. He terminated his contract with Juventus after 11 years with the club to take a step down and join Brescia in Serie B.

The much loved Vincenzo Montella returns after 6 months in England, and he returns back to Sampdoria to revive his roots. It certainly worked as the plane has already lifted off when he scored on the first day of the season. The ever chaotic Antonio Cassano returns and he joins Sampdoria too to form a fantastic attack, after having spent 2 miserable years at Real Madrid.

Bernardo Corradi returns back to Parma, on loan, after having spent a not so impressive year in England. The much experienced forward is looking to revive his confidence.

A name that is not too familiar is Arturo Lupoli, he is one of the most exciting youngsters in Italian football, and he returns to Italy after spending two years in England. Where he played for Derby County whilst being owned by Arsenal.

As one can determine there has been a lot of transfer action going on in Italy. Should one be worried why all the much loved Italian players are deciding to apply their trade somewhere else? It can be treated as a concern as Serie A has lost a lot of it's talent but it also can be a positive. It gives a good name to Serie A as it shows how in demand the Italian players are, and there is plenty of young talent Italy are producing to full in the names of these missing stars. So it all ways out in the end. As one player leaves another top star is being produced.

Serie A is rising again and with Italy as World Cup winners and Milan the champions of Europe, it is only expected that teams from a different country will be looking at Serie A to buy their talent.