Napoli Signs Luca Bucci

By: Neil | February 5th, 2009

With the addition of Luca Bucci to the Napoli roster, 17 year old primavera keeper Luigi Sepe can now return to the youth team. Bucci is a direct replacement in the pecking order for the injured Matteo Gianello, and will backup the formerly injured Nico Navarro who is deputizing for the injured Gennaro Iezzo. Sepe, who by some miracle did not get injured playing goal for Napoli, could get a recall if Navarro gets injured again or Bucci is unable to go because of poor conditioning or injury.

The well travelled Bucci’s previous clubs include Parma, Pro Patria, Rimini, Parma (again), Casertana, Reggina, Parma (third time), Perugia, Torino, Empoli, Parma (fourth time) and now he is suiting up for the Vesuviani. Given that he is 39, Napoli will likely be his last Serie A club, although I could see him ending his career with Parma.

The Bologna born keeper was number three for Italy at USA 94, and in total earned three caps for the Azzurri. Here is his bio on Napoli’s official website.

Expect to see Luigi Sepe back with the first team in the future. With Iezzo being injury prone and Gianello set to leave in the offseason, there will be space for Sepe down the road. Look for Navarro and Sepe to challenge for the #1 spot for years to come. In the long term Napoli’s goalkeeping situation looks good, and it would be great if Sepe could work his way up from the Primavera team to eventually competing with Amelia and Marchetti for the Nazionale.

In other news, FIFA has backed Daniele Mannini in his bid to get his suspension shortened. Mannini and his former Brescia teammate now have the backing of one of the biggest organizations in sport. I also found out why the suspension was so severe: apparently the two players were arguing with the officials administering the doping test. I don’t know exactly what was said or the nature of the conflict, but I think it was their belligerent nature that earned them a severe punishment and not being late for the test.

That’s all for now. Next post will be a preview of Napoli’s trip to Palermo. The southern battle will be this week’s posticipo, and I’m really happy it’s the showpiece game for this week. Look for the preview sometime on Sunday.