Genoa – Irregular phenomena. In a football that has too often become a cage for talent, Joshua Zirkzee and Albert Gudmundsson are the symbol of imagination that flies free. Of the dribbling that gives color to the gray of schemes tried and tested again in training, to the repetitiveness of long sessions in the video room to see and review the mistakes made. Zirkzee and Gudmundsson they break the monotony, they are the truly great novelty of Serie A. Talents who have been lucky enough to find coaches like Thiago Motta and Alberto Gilardino, able to free them, to give them confidence and space to move. Light but also decisive: eight goals of the season for the Dutch attacker, nine for the Icelandic. Technical, quick and pure bombers: both are the top scorers of their teams.
In Udine Zirkzee risked expulsion for a somewhat risky challenge on an opponent but Motta defended him: «He's a good boy who wants to win, he's still young, he knows where to put his energy to help himself and the group». And Gila lights up when talking about Albert. «Before I took over the team, he played little and had not yet expressed his full potential. I gave him freedom and he blossomed like a rose.”
Irregular phenomena. Raised in that great school of life that is street football. «In Munich I became an adult but let's say that street football shaped me: because it's always a duel, you fight for yourself, if you fall on the asphalt you hurt yourself a lot and then you train to stand, because you feel free of playing. A school of life, of football, where you have to improve yourself every day. I never went home, like many children. And mother Doris got really angry. How many scoldings I got,” Zirkzee said. And Gudmundsson confirms: «In the summer there were about twenty hours of sunshine and we used them to play football, without ever stopping. It happened that my mother had to come and call me at two in the morning to make me stop and go home.” And then he adds: «I have the impression that children today don't play much in the streets. As a child I always played on the street or on concrete: I trained alone on a field full of snow, where you never knew where the ball would end up. If there was a lot of snow, however, we went indoors and played futsal.” The erratic bounce on the asphalt or in the snow was a training in unpredictability. And both are unpredictable, irregular. They use the back heel to catch their opponents off guard and provide assists to their teammates. Zirkzee showed it at San Siro, in the Italian Cup, when he was decisive for Inter's elimination. Gudmundsson a few hours later in Reggio Emilia, with a long ball towards Ekuban, who in turn was able to mock the defender and fly towards the goal for the winning goal.
Dribbling, fantasy, goals. Also in common is the breath of total Dutch football, for the Bolognese who is orange and the Genoan who grew up in football in the Netherlands. And those socks pulled down. As in the best tradition of talented players. Sivori, Corso, Meroni, Cruijff, Best, Totti, Baggio, Kvaratskhelia. The talent that rebels against the rule, against the uniform prescribed by the regulations. It can be understood as a gesture of defiance towards opponents but also and above all as a desire for freedom. The one that Motta and Gilardino gave them, enhancing their talent and making them travel at a pace never seen before in their careers.
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