{"id":352592,"date":"2019-02-04T15:18:27","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T20:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonfootball.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=352592"},"modified":"2019-02-04T15:19:08","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T20:19:08","slug":"nicolo-zaniolo-wanted-elite-european-clubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2019\/02\/04\/nicolo-zaniolo-wanted-elite-european-clubs\/","title":{"rendered":"AS Roma Star Nicolo Zaniolo is Wanted by Elite European Clubs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Only a year ago, <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/9907b1c8\/Nicolo-Zaniolo\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nicolo Zaniolo<\/a> wasn&#8217;t a name many football fans were familiar with. This season, most <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/squads\/cf74a709\/Roma-Stats\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AS Roma<\/a> players have been in poor form. However, Zaniolo is at the top of his form. He is also on the wishlist of several top European clubs.<\/p>\n<p>According to\u00a0<em>Ga<\/em><em>zzetta Dello\u00a0Sport<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/squads\/e2d8892c\/Paris-Saint-Germain-Stats\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paris Saint-Germain<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/squads\/206d90db\/Barcelona-Stats\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Barcelona<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/squads\/53a2f082\/Real-Madrid-Stats\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Real Madrid<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/chelseafootball.co\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chelsea<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/squads\/e0652b02\/Juventus-Stats\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Juventus<\/a> are all in the race for the youngster&#8217;s signature. Juve is leading the race for the star. A lot of this attraction is from the player&#8217;s new agent, Claudio Vigorelli.<\/p>\n<h1>AS Roma&#8217;s Nicolo Zaniolo: a Wanted Man<\/h1>\n<p>Nicolo Zaniolo joined Roma last summer from <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/squads\/d609edc0\/Internazionale-Stats\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Inter Milan<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/1f9328da\/Radja-Nainggolan\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Radja Naingollan<\/a> went the other way. The\u00a0<em>Nerazzurri\u00a0<\/em>seemed to be the winners in this transfer, though it is the other way around. The Inter management believed Zaniolo wasn&#8217;t talented enough for the senior squad. On the other hand, Roma saw the talent in the player.<\/p>\n<p>This season, Zaniolo was able to score two goals and assist twice in 14 Serie A appearances. Radja Naingollan, who Inter acquired in the swap deal, scored the same amount of goals but is still without an assist in the league. He could attack and defend. The 19-year-old averages two tackles every league game. He is crucial for the\u00a0<em>Giallorossi,\u00a0<\/em>he is keeping the team from completely faltering.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonfootball.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/clubs\/ac-milan\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AC Milan<\/a> legend and head coach Gennaro Gattuso claims he identified the talent in the midfielder since the player played in the Inter youth team. The World Cup winner believes Zaniolo is the future of Italian football.<\/p>\n<p>Speculation surrounds his future in the Italian capital. With many clubs wanting to sign the former <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/squads\/421387cf\/Fiorentina-Stats\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fiorentina man<\/a>, if Roma fails to qualify for the Champions League, the player would be tempted to leave and the club could be forced to sell him. It is now Zaniolo&#8217;s duty to help the team in many <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2019\/02\/03\/previewing-ac-milan-versus-as-roma\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tough games to come<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"dEQxlk8SSVVHzUUf-98fXg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1082808650\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'dEQxlk8SSVVHzUUf-98fXg',sig:'5FDJOIWMLsNyLVw5ULptnr9Nd6sCscKzy2iqmQ770oQ=',w:'594px',h:'425px',items:'1082808650',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Only a year ago, Nicolo Zaniolo wasn&#8217;t a name many football fans were familiar with. This season, most AS Roma players have been in poor form. However, Zaniolo is at the top of his form. He is also on the wishlist of several top European clubs. According to\u00a0Gazzetta Dello\u00a0Sport, Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2787,"featured_media":353519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1363,1362,28],"tags":[997,464,46,674,323,3383,261,182,37,136],"class_list":["post-352592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-serie-a","category-ac-milan","category-juventus","category-transfers","tag-as-roma","tag-barcelona","tag-chelsea","tag-inter-milan","tag-juventus","tag-nicolo-zaniolo","tag-psg","tag-real-madrid","tag-transfers","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Martin Hawkins","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2787"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}