Felipe Melo Is A Golden Piece Of Garbage

‘Twas a Portuguese-speaking sweep of the podium at this year’s Bidone d’Oro (Golden Trash Can – for Serie A’s worst flop) awards, with Juventus’ big-moneyed signing taking home the big trophy. (Presumably there isn’t an actual trophy, nor could the radio station get all three players to show up and collect their non-awards, but we can dream these guys have the sense of humor to show up and collect their paper trophies.)

And this completes the trifecta for Felipe Melo this week, a week may have won him the award: on Tuesday he and Juventus were humiliated out of the Champions League, and on Saturday they bounced back by falling 3-1 to Bari, with the &eurp;50m Brazilian pair of signings (he and Diego) getting a great deal of the schtick.

But perhaps most importantly, Marco Marchionni deserves an assist on this one. Melo was sent from Firenze to the northwest for €20.5m and Marchionni, who’s been nothing short of wonderful and even earned a trip back into the Azzurri. So if one was to be closer the €20.5m mark, it’d be Marchionni, which certainly doesn’t help Melo’s case.

Of course it’d be interesting to see if RAI2 could breakdown the voting by the week, as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was the early favorites (here and in your hearts). But then he did this…

…and suddenly the race was wide open.

So to say that Melo probably surged into the lead over the past week probably isn’t too outlandish. It also isn’t too outlandish to say that Juventus could’ve spent their €50m more wisely, which is exactly how one wins this award (see: nearly every award previous).

The Hall of Shame which Melo joins:

‘08: Ricardo Quaresma
‘06-07: Adriano
‘05: Bobo Vieri
‘04: Nicola Legrottaglie
‘03: Rivaldo

And this is how the voting breaks down for this year:

1) Felipe Melo 22,87% – 4.289 voti;
2) Quaresma 20,63% – 3.868;
3) Tiago 9,99% – 1.873;
4) Dida 9,56% – 1.792;
5) Mancini 9,39% – 1.760;
6) Huntelaar 6,84% – 1.283;
7) Ronaldinho 6,07% – 1.139;
8 ) Poulsen 6,06% – 1.137;
9) Carrizo 4,37% – 819;
10) Julio Baptista 4,22% – 792

An incredible showing from Portuguese-speaking countries – most deserving, if some on reputation (that’d be Dida) – to take home every single spot in the top five and sweep the top half of the awards.

A bit disappointing Quaresma wasn’t given the benefit of the doubt and offered up the chance to become the first ever three-time winner, but there are rumors that Adriano might be back in the Italian fold come January. There’s no telling what that man might savage on his way to becoming the first three-time winner. Outside of a few pizzas, of course.

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Category: Serie A