Alessandro Bastoni’s six weeks of hell may have sealed his Inter Milan exit.
The defender will be the front page of every single Italian newspaper tomorrow morning after his red card led Italy to miss another World Cup.
Having lost Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Amar Memić through on goal in the 41st minute, Bastoni made the catastrophic decision to hack him down for a blatant red card.
Italy were a goal up at the time, but went on to concede before losing on penalties, making it three-straight World Cups that they’ve missed.
For Bastoni, he will be his nation’s enemy, but uniquely for him, he already was.
On February 14th the 26-year-old was already front page news for a shocking dive in the Derby d’Italia against Juventus.
Pierre Kalulu brushed his arm and Bastoni threw his legs back before wildly celebrating a second yellow card for the Frenchman.
He was later forced to repeatedly apologise, and has been booed at Serie A grounds ever since, even with Juve’s unpopularity among neutrals.
Bastoni criticism pours in
Leading the medoa tirade against Bastoni was tennis legend and pundit Adriano Panatta who said: “I watched the match up until the Bastoni incident. It was a good match and I was enjoying it.
“Then, after that incident, I changed the channel and started watching a film. This is unacceptable and I want to make a proposal…
“Since there’s television evidence, let’s introduce it on diving: anyone who exaggerates by highlighting a very minor foul will be punished with a three-match ban.
“If this rule had existed, would Bastoni have dived? I don’t think so.
“The problem is that players will always continue to dive until they are certain of the punishment. At that point, things will change. I’m certain of that.”
Bastoni’s current contract at Inter ends in 2028, and with strong links to Barcelona, a departure from his home country may well not just be beneficial, but necessary.
After his dive and celebration against Juve, he first turned off comments on a social media post about the game and later deleted it in its entirety.
Speaking days later at a Champions League press conference he apologised for the incident.
“I overreacted, I admit it,” Bastoni said.
“I’ve taken the time to analyse the situation these past few days, and my reaction was inappropriate.
“We all make mistakes, and the most important thing is to acknowledge them.”
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