– Whatever happened to Benito Carbone?

15 years ago, a little Italian striker called Benito Carbone landed in South Yorkshire after Sheffield Wednesday took a three million pound gamble on a player who had a reputation for being a journeyman footballer.

Prior to his arrival at Hillsborough, Carbone had already played for seven clubs in his native country including Napoli and Inter. It was high risk for sure, but in his first season in England, the little striker won over the hearts of the Wednesday faithful and finished the season as the fans player of the year. Unfortunately, that’s as good as it got for Carbone and three years later, after a high profile bust up with his then manager Danny Wilson, Carbone jumped ship, heading south to join Aston Villa. After making an appearance in the FA Cup final of 2000, he was on the move again, this time back to Yorkshire were he joined Bradford City who had just been promoted to the Premier League.

Carbone’s 10 goals in 2000-01 failed to save the Bantams from the drop and once again he was on the move, first to Derby County on loan and then Middlesbrough, also on a loan deal. Again, he found it hard to settle and in 2002 returned to Bradford City. By this time, the West Yorkshire club were in administration and expensive assets like Carbone were regarded as surplus to requirements. The Italian returned to Italy to play for Como and in a gesture that went totally against the media perception of him, decided to waiver wages owed to him in order for the club to survive their administration.

Over the next five years, Carbone played for Como, Parma, Catanzaro, Vicenza and Sydney FC in Australia. In 2007, he once again returned to the peninsula to join Italian third division side Pavia and only a few weeks ago, he was given his first chance in management as the northern Italian club look to try to survive the dreaded drop into the fourth tier of Italian football. Since taking over the managerial hot seat, Carbone’s record stands at played three, won one, lost two and the clubs next two fixtures are against the division’s top two teams, Sorrento and Gubbio.

It will be fascinating to see how Carbone develops as a coach. Now at the tender age of 39, will he be able to instil discipline into his players, something that was sadly lacking in his own career, or is this once again the start of a journey that will see him ultimately pack up and leave as soon as the going gets tough. Many supporters both here in the UK and in Italy, will have their reservations.