Bonaventura, like wine – Contrasti Magazine

In a Serie A where it is difficult to find a real battle between the scorers (Lautaro leads all others with 12, from 7 goals) and where the of purebred bomber However, it remains a problem for many teams, having a midfielder like Jack Bonaventura is pure gold. This year, Bonaventura has already scored 6 goals this season – including one in the Italy jersey, making him the oldest goalscorer in the club’s history Blue. But, be Dimensions it cannot be reduced to the implementation aspect. Bonaventura is not someone who steals your attention, he doesn’t make you fall in love with his touch of the ball or his shot, but It’s like the somewhat quiet and shy friend who always answers when you call.

Bonaventura’s strength lies in his mind. Bonaventure is without a doubt one of the most talented, intelligent and underrated footballers that our football has ever produced in the last decade, characterized by few lights and many shadows. A product of the youth sector that produces talents like the Atalanta player, Bonaventura’s career was fatal. jump in the Rossoneri jersey as Milan experienced one of the worst moments in their history. Now, however, he has made a fresh start at Fiorentina and is experiencing a second youth. So who is Giacomo Bonaventura?

Bonaventura footballer: the joker

As I said, Giacomo Bonaventura there San Severino Marche (Province of Macerata) has been underestimated all too often in his career. In the author’s opinion, the reason is primarily technical. You cannot identify Bonaventura as The good footballer The What. Bonaventura is a joker in midfield and, as the good guys say, always loves to oscillate between midfield and attack: he is good at everything, but especially on an aesthetic level he does not have any qualities that stand out from the others. Bonaventura comes more with thought than with technique (although very high).

Sometimes winger, sometimes winger in midfield (both right and left, of course), attacking midfielder, very often midfielder, rarely second striker. Jack Bonaventura can do anything. Paradoxically, it was precisely this penchant for tactical change, his mimicry and his general ability to adapt to any role from midfield upwards that made us believe we were dealing with a normal footballer.

“There Specialization is a wrong step: It makes you explode, but then you have to improve, change and adapt.”

Giacomo Bonaventura

He won’t dribble like Berardi and he won’t shoot at goal like Barella, but Bonaventura remains one of the most intelligent players in our Serie A today: intelligence that translates into always knowing how to measure the final and decisive pass , in the ability to occupy spaces combined with a vision of the game that allows him to serve his teammates at the right time. However, Bonaventura always and only put all of his qualities at the service of the collective, without his (great) individual talent becoming too noticeable: he never made plays for their own sake, exhibitionistic but uniquely functional. In short, he never paid too much attention to on-field aesthetics, partly due to his “anti-star” personality, which is what we want to focus on now.

Bonaventure person: extraordinary normal

If the Marche player is, as I said, a white fly on the pitch, off the pitch he is, if possible, almost even more so: he could be defined as the absolute opposite of the stereotype of the modern footballer. No tattoos (“I don’t like them, but I have nothing against those who do them”: pure rationalism), no dyed hair (bad) or “fashionable” cuts, none wags as a companion, poor social media presence, no particular vices off the field and no controversies to be ashamed of (and don’t you think that’s much these days?): in short, Jack is the most classic of the so-called “good guys” (“I’m just house and shop”as he said in an interview).

In addition, throughout his career, Bonaventura has never caused controversy with an insider, be it a teammate or a coach, a manager or even a referee: in short, a quiet guy in all respects, or whatever he still called himself himself”A “normal guy, definitely reserved, but not shy at all”.

His biggest hobby is music: plays guitar and listens to rock music Vintage, from U2 to Oasis via Nick Cave (The signatory had the good fortune and pleasure to meet him on November 6, 2017 at the Australian singer-songwriter’s concert at the Assago Forum in Milan: and who can forget a similar event). Could it also be that he was such a minor media personality (in this era of constant and obsessive coverage of footballers in the media) that also influenced his call-ups to the national team?

It is certainly not a hypothesis that should be rejected, but in any case Jack’s “philosophy of life” is this: “In life you need the right balance. Football strengthens the ego, you have to be careful“.

However, confidentiality and calm are certainly not synonymous with a lack of personality, since Bonaventura has always proven throughout his career that he has them, although he has never “raised his voice” to demonstrate it, because it is simply not necessary was. To give just one example: at the age of ten, an audition for Atalanta went wrong. They tell him that “it’s too punyHowever, he did not allow himself to be discouraged and at the age of 15 left home to play in Tolentino (still in the province of Macerata), where this time he was noticed by the club’s observers Goddess, who decide to enroll him.

“It’s not true that you are born with a strong personality: you can build it over time“, Jack explained, knowing full well that he wasn’t born chosen and that if he really wanted to show up and make it in professional football, the only way was through willpower: “We only make the difference ourselves. What counts for me is will, commitment and inner strength.” That was always his competitive spirit, which always made him get back up after every fall.

As evidence of his great personality, albeit “unremarkable”, there is also the chapter linked to the decisive goals: For only few remember him, except Bonaventura it has always been crucial when it mattered to all of his teams.

During his time at Padua, he helped save his team with a goal in the second leg Playoffs against Triestina. The following year (2010-11), at Atalanta, he was one of the key players in the Bergamo side’s promotion to Serie A, which achieved salvation in 2012 thanks to a goal from Jack against Florentine three days early.

However, in the darkest years of Milan’s recent history (2013-2020), they won one trophy: the Italian Super Cup In Qatar in 2016, when he beat Juve on penalties. His contribution is crucial as he first scores the equalizer and then takes one of the penalty kicks. One of his goals was also to bring Fiorentina a European Cup Conference Leaguein the final against West Ham, but unfortunately things didn’t go well back then. After all, Bonaventura is now used to Italian and European teams playing or training in Arab countries to earn some extra money. He himself proves that he does not mince his words (always on the subject of personality) and was perhaps the first footballer of our country to criticize these decisions, since during his time in Milan he described the Rossoneri’s tour of Dubai in the winter of 2014 as “Marketing stuff that also affected the team due to the many injuries“.

A Leader for viola

“Bonaventure is our Bellingham“ explained Luciano Spalletti, who brought him back to the national team after three years. The provocation is obvious and there is no need to underline the reason: However, at 34 years old, Jack actually seems to play just like the 20-year-old Englishman from Real, almost a kind of “all-rounder”. ” (or Box to box as the British would say) is able to combine quality and quantity.

Bonaventura, who is coached by Vincenzo Italiano at Fiorentina, has become a much more agile player in the defensive phase, able to attack with greater sharpness and win back balls when out of possession. Be physically fit again At an age when a player typically begins to slack off (barring real-world phenomena), this is not only due to this, but is a direct result of the increasingly central role Jack now occupies on the viola board.

Although he lost some speed and dynamism, he easily made up for these limitations thanks to his proven tactical intelligence. The “new/old” Bonaventura is a player who is perhaps less “unpredictable” and more “calm” in his movements without and with the ball than before, but he has now transformed into one a very important reference point in the middle of the pitch for his teamHe learned to handle the ball better in order to slow down the opponent’s pressure and to distribute the passes to his teammates even more by using more long balls: in fact, he could almost be described as a “director”, albeit atypical.

In fact, Jack never gave up one of the technical-tactical traits that characterized him most, namely going in without the ball to look for an assist or a goal. as he demonstrates also the great start to the season in terms of numbers Performance. Bonaventura’s strange phenomenon, which has become irreplaceable for the balance of Fiorentina (Italiano has not let him rest even once), can be attributed to the aging of valuable wines. The more time passes, the better the wine becomes, provided of course it is of high quality.