7 players from Serie B who have fallen off the footballing map
Former Leeds United, Aston Villa and Everton players are among those who’ve totally fallen off the footballing map while turning out for clubs in Serie B.
Famous clubs including Sampdoria, Sassuolo and Palermo are flying under the mainstream radar away from Serie A this season, with a number of familiar faces turning out for them and others.
Here are seven forgotten footballers who are currently plying their trade in the Italian second tier.
Josh Doig
“It’s good to see when you are putting in all this hard work that big names are showing interest,” Doig told BBC Sport back in 2021 following tabloid reports linking him with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Leeds United.
“I think it is all just speculation at the moment. As long as I’m playing football and I’m fit, I’ll be happy no matter how far I get.”
That’s a healthy attitude and hopefully it’s served him well as his career hasn’t quite hit the heights many predicted.
No move to a top Premier League side materialised for the one-time highly-rated left-back at Hibernian, who ended up joining Hellas Verona for a €6million fee in January 2022.
After two so-so years in Verona, Doig joined Sassuolo midway through their relegation-doomed campaign last year.
Doig still has plenty of time to come good and make a success of his time in Italy. He’s been doing well away from the spotlight this season, featuring prominently for a Sassuolo side that top the Serie B table, well on track to bounce back at the first time of asking.
Franco Vazquez
The attacking midfielder has over a hundred appearances under his belt for both Palermo and Sevilla and a small handful of games at senior international level for both Italy and Argentina.
Now winding down a long and respectable career in the game, he’s 35 and into his fourth successive season in the Italian second tier.
He scored 25 goals across two Serie B campaigns with fallen giants Parma, where he briefly played under Enzo Maresca, and is now turning out for play-off chasers Cremonese.
Jeff Reine-Adelaide
You might remember Reine-Adelaide as part of a crew of much-hyped double-barrelled rising stars at Arsenal’s Hale End academy back in the day.
The midfielder made eight appearances for the Gunners in the late Wenger era, but none in the Premier League as he struggled to make it beyond the fringes at The Emirates.
Subsequent years have seen the former France youth international go from Angers to Lyon to lesser-known Belgian outfit RWD Molenbeek before eventually making it to Serie B outfit Salernitana.
Unfortunately he’s found gametime hard to come by this season, having featured in just six of their 21 Serie B matches to date.
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Ronaldo Vieira
Back in the spring of 2018, before Marcelo Bielsa’s arrival, the average Leeds United fan would probably have told you that homegrown midfield prospect Vieira had a higher ceiling than Kalvin Phillips.
But it was Phillips that Bielsa put his faith in, while Leeds cashed in on Vieira to the tune of a £7.7million fee from Sampdoria.
Seven years later, the midfielder remains at the Marassi after an up-and-down time of it.
You wonder if he ever wonders if England caps and a big-money move to Manchester City might have come to pass if Bielsa put his faith in him instead.
In this reality, Vieira’s career has stuttered from non-starter loans to Hellas Verona and Torino to a relegation suffered back at his parent club in 2023-24.
But Sampdoria – who are now jointly owned by former Leeds chairman Andrea Radrizzani – look far more likely to drop down to Serie C than go back up to Serie A.
Birkir Bjarnason
With a hairband and a strong beard, Bjarnason has the classic look of yer grizzled Icelandic international.
If you don’t recognise the midfielder from his 100+ caps for Iceland, including that famous victory over England, you might’ve spotted him from his eclectically journeyman club career.
It’s one that includes 11 different stops in seven different countries – from Standard Liege to Sampdoria to FC Basel to Aston Villa and plenty in between.
After a short-lived homecoming at Viking, Bjarnason joined Brescia in 2023. He’s now into his second season with the club as they look set for another comfortably midtable campaign.
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Adam Nagy
Another veteran international, Nagy has played 88 times for Hungary and represented at multiple European Championships during their recent rise back to prominence.
Stops along the way in the defensive midfielder’s club career include Bologna, Bristol City and Pisa before settling on Serie B Spezia after a successful half-season loan last term.
Surprisingly enough still only 29, Nagy has spent the last six seasons of his career in the second tiers of England and Italy but a return to the big time might be imminent.
Spezia are third and looking well-placed for a play-off spot, with a sizeable gap behind the top two.
Domenico Berardi
Berardi has spent pretty much his entire career with Sassuolo and went down with the ship after suffering relegation last term.
After scoring 11 Serie B goals as a teenager to fire them to promotion way back in 2012-13, Berardi signed for Juventus before immediately rejoining his beloved boyhood club on loan.
He never actually made an appearance for the Old Lady and eventually made his return home permanent.
After helping them get promoted, he scored over a hundred Serie A goals for the club and has been capped 27 times for Italy, scoring eight goals and featuring in Roberto Mancini’s triumphant Euro 2020 squad.
Sassuolo enjoyed 11 consecutive campaigns in the Italian top flight before going down last season but their Serie B stint should only be a blip.
They currently top the table and have a comfortable 10-point cushion ahead of third-place Spezia, while Berardi has turned more provider with 10 assists and just three goals.