When it comes to football, it takes a long time to get to the top of the mountain but no time at all to fall down it, and Chelsea’s Jorginho is having a taste of that this week.
The midfielder has had a fantastic year, playing a key role for Chelsea in their Champions League success before carrying that form into the Euros with Italy, where he was a champion once again.
He’s impressed so much that he finds himself on the shortlist for the Ballon D’Or, something few would have predicted given his first year at Stamford Bridge.
Unfortunately, it can’t all go well, though, and it appears the wolves are back at the door after a recent missed penalty in the 0-0 draw with Switzerland.
According to Area Napoli, he is ‘once again included in the meat grinder of criticism’ after the incident, with opinion having changed quickly.
After being the shining light over the summer, he’s got the ‘serial haters’ on ‘permanent social duty’ against him, and is being ‘massacred’.
The debate has even spread among the experts, where the debate around Jorginho winning the Ballon D’Or instead of Lionel Messi has spread.
The missed penalty has been used as an argument against him, but Area Napoli argue that is ‘banal’ and really the Chelsea man should be judged by his ‘courage, his altruism and his imagination’ instead.
They’re very much in Jorginho’s corner, arguing that one missed penalty shouldn’t mean all his good work is suddenly ignored.
That’s a stance that his agent is also taking, even hitting back at one of his client’s biggest critics, Antonio Cassano.
“Cassano? I have responded to statements he has made,” Area Napoli report him saying.
“If he said certain things, it means that there is some frustration for not having won the Champions League or a trophy with the national team.
“For me, Cassano will always be a champion, an extraordinary player, I don’t know him personally, but he was an important player.”
