Is D'alessandro worth it?

By Carlos Drechser
June 17 2005

Andrés D'alessandro has agreed to stay in Wolfsburg after talking with new coach Holger Fach despite the interest from Deportivo La Coruña and Spurs. He has ultimately been a disruptive figure in the team desperately wanting to leave, but has also proven he can be a great player. Did Vfl do good?

The 24-year-old Argentine midfielder has become a very well known player all around the world. He has achieved this through his wonderful technique, which allows him to perform amazing tricks and step on the ball so naturally, defenders always have major trouble when trying to take the ball away from him. His team, VfL Wolfsburg, is a slowly growing German side, which would not provide him immediate exposure. The team had a fairly good season, with ups and downs, mostly depending on how its stars, Martin Petrov and Andrés D’alessandro, performed. That way, both players have made themselves a name in Europe, and have attracted the attention of more important teams such as Deportivo La Coruña and Tottenham Hotspurs (D’alessandro) and Atlético de Madrid (Petrov).

But contrasted to his marvelous and almost unique dribbling, D’alessandro’s attitude can be quite negative and disruptive. Even in the earliest days in his career, playing for River Plate and the U20 national team, he showed a childish and sometimes selfish attitude that would remain and prove to be part of his personality. A small example of this could be seen in December 2004, when Wolfsburg defeated Arminia Bielefeld 5-0, the midfielder got very upset and made a scene because Martin Petrov didn’t let him take a penalty that turned into the Wolves’ fifth goal. Despite having had a great match, he gave the fans and team a taste of his bad attitude.

Apart from having trouble with the German lifestyle and language, he never quite ended fitting in the group, on one hand his skills allowed the team to rely on him when attacking, but on the other hand, because of his personality, a lot of time was needed to let him be the leader. This would never actually happen, he proved himself he is unreliable and never showed any signs of great efforts to help the team. Red cards, bad performances and lack of communication with teammates transformed into a place on the bench, which would ignite the player’s unrest. In that case, his attitude reflected in his game and became more of a disruptive figure than a leading skillful player.

Absence from matches made him turn against his coach, Erik Gerets. This slowly worsened with time, and also did relations with teammates and the club’s directives. Close the end of the season, D’alessandro was already requesting transfer, completely determined to leave Wolfsburg unless Erik Gerets left. He turned to media and put pressure to be released, he truly became a problem for VfL.

But Erik Gerets was replaced by Holger Fach, who was successful in travelling to Argentina and convince D’alessandro to stay. Wolfsburg decided to keep him, and Fach seems keen on letting him be the team leader he should have been last season. In order to achieve that, the new coach must create a special atmosphere in which D’alessandro can feel good and therefore perform well, and try to keep him away from trouble and polemics. It will definitely be an extremely hard task to do. Wolfsburg depends a lot on this, D’alessandro’s game can make them challengers to an European spot, and maybe he can return to Argentina’s national team.