Russia, not a popular country in the current era amidst all the happenings with Ukraine and the threats to other nations. Thankfully, this is a football article, so we don’t have to get into the weeds with all that. Instead, let’s focus on the Russian Premier League, which has just kicked off.

The league consists of the usual names, such as Zenit Saint Petersburg, Rubin Kazan and the Moscow clubs CSKA, Spartak and Lokomotiv. All clubs that have represented the country on the European stage.

Who were the great talents that plied their trade in Italian football over the last 20-30 years? A lot of arguments will be made for the likes of Francesco Totti, Paulo Maldini, Pavel Nedved, Ronaldo Nazario, the list goes on.

How about those talents that never quite made it because of outside factors, the big name that springs to mind here is Adriano. If one was to sit down for an hour and rattle off names from this era a list of world-beaters can be made.

What if we look away from the top teams in Italy and instead cast our eyes to the lower half of Serie A and below? A small percentage of people may have heard this name, and one look on YouTube a discovery of talent may surprise many; this is the story of Davide Moscardelli.