If things had worked out for him, Andrea Tabanelli would be a Leeds United player, settled at the club, and with a few years of English football behind him.
Owned by Cesena, the midfielder had been spotted by a certain Massimo Cellino who wanted to take him to Elland Road and be part of the club’s efforts to reach the Premier League.
Tabanelli was very much up for the move too, excited at such an opportunity and seeing it as his big chance to make it in football.
But, as sometimes happens, the move came close and then collapsed and Tabanelli joined Cagliari instead. The big plans of an England move were still a dream but injuries then hit, and the now 28 year old has faced a lot of bad luck since being spotted by Cellino in 2014.
Italy’s Quotidiano have been speaking to him as he tries to rebuild his career at Lecce, and they hugely talk up the Leeds chance. The Italian newspaper newspaper state the ‘dream’ move ‘vanished at its most beautiful’ meaning right at the point it almost happened.
They put it down to ‘bureaucratic problems’, but don’t elaborate.
‘Taba’ is now taking things slowly at Lecce, not wanting to face another injury issue:
