UDINESE CALCIO could hardly be considered one of Italy's elite clubs.
Their fairly modest roll of honour includes a couple of Serie B titles, a 1978 Anglo-Italian Cup triumph -- when they defeated semi-professional Bath City in the final -- and a Serie A runners-up spot in 1955. For Italy’s second- oldest club, it isn’t a great deal to shout about.
In the last decade or so, however, Celtic’s Europa League opponents undoubtedly have made giant strides forward, even if silverware continues to elude them. After years of bouncing around between the top three divisions, Udinese earned promotion to Serie A in 1996 and have remained there ever since, building successfully from that platform of stability.
From what is a relatively small city in Italy’s north-east, Udinese have punched above their weight in recent years -- reaching the group phase of the Champions League for the first time in 2005 -- thanks primarily to their policy of sourcing young, untapped talent from across the globe and, hopefully, selling them on for vast profit a few years down the line.
To ensure the scheme is a success, they have tended to use something of a scattergun approach, offering fairly basic contracts to hundreds of aspiring young pros in the hope that, by the law of averages, at least a handful will become superstars.
Many are sent out on loan at first to see if they have what it takes, before being recalled for a crack at the Udinese first team, or instead loaned out again. Mohamadou Sissoko signed for the Italian club in 2007 and has yet to make a first- team appearance, instead being sent out on loan every season to date.
He is currently back at Kilmarnock and entering the final year of his five-year contract, one of 32 Udinese youngsters sent away to try to gain first-team experience. It seems unlikely now that Sissoko will ever make it at Udinese, but with their low-risk, low-cost strategy they will have lost very little by taking a chance on the Frenchman.
For every 100 who don’t make the grade, there is one whose eventual transfer fee can fund the rebuilding of an entire squad. Alexis Sanchez signed for Udinese as a 17-year-old for around £1.5m in 2006 and was allowed to remain in South America for the next two years, spending a year on loan at Colo-Colo in his native Chile before moving to River Plate in Argentina for a further season’s experience.
Only then, as a 19-year-old with two championship medals to his name, did he finally journey to Italy, quickly establishing himself in the Udinese first team and helping them finish fourth in Serie A last season. That was enough to entice Barcelona, who took the player to the Nou Camp for around £25m, netting the selling club a profit in excess of £23m just five years after buying him.
South America has proven to be a fruitful market for Udinese. From Chile they also plundered David Pizarro, who later made multi-million pound moves to rivals Internazionale and then AS Roma, and Mauricio Isla, who is still with Udinese after four years.
Adel Balbo, the former Argentina striker, had his first port of call in Europe at the Italian outfit, while the Colombian defender Cristian Zapata moved on to Villarreal this summer after pitching up in the city of Udine six years ago. Again the profit margin was substantial.
They have found similar joy in parts of Africa, with Asamoah Gyan, Sulley Muntari and Stephen Appiah all scouted and signed from Ghanian clubs, before being moved on to bigger European teams for substantial recompense.
It all seems so straightforward but for such a policy to be a success it requires a vast, well-connected, worldwide scouting system, and a willingness to take a chance on raw youth in the hope that they might one day mature into something special.
Udinese’s reputation also goes before them. Young players looking for their first move into Europe need only look at their success rate at moving on talent to realise that it might be more prudent in the long run to sign for the unfashionable Italians than other mid-ranking clubs.
Clubs like Celtic clearly have designs on emulating the scheme -- hence the signing of Biram Kayal and Emilio Izaguirre from untapped markets. However, when it comes to recruiting South Americans, it is hard to get a jump on the Italians, whose ancestral links to the continent tend to make getting hold of the requisite passport that bit easier.
The complicated system of co-ownership in Italian football is another factor, clubs regularly “halfing in” to snap up a prospect, then sharing the profits further down the line, something Udinese have done to great effect over the years.
The paradox, of course, is that despite their reputation as a selling club, Udinese continue to go from strength to strength. Celtic will find that out for themselves on Thursday night.
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