With the 2019/20 Serie A campaign resuming this past weekend, we take a look at the eight South African players who have featured in the Italian top flight, including two former Kaizer Chiefs stars.
Click through the gallery above to see the eight SA players who have played in Serie A!
SA's most prolific player in Italy was Eddie Firmani. The retired forward was born in Souh Africa but represented Italy at international level. He scored 108 goals in 194 appearances for Inter Milan, Sampdoria and Genoa between 1955 and 1963.
Later on the late Philemon Masinga wrote headlines in Serie A. He first helped AS Bari gain promotion to Serie A in the 1996/97 season before scoring important goals to keep them in Italy's top flight for four successive campaigns.
Masinga's most prolific season came in 1998/99 when he netted 11 goals, but he could not prevent them from being relegated in 2000/01. He subsequently left the club after scoring 24 goals in 75 Serie A appearances.
Dimas Teixeira is another player born in SA, who represented a European nation, namely Portugal. The former left-back made 39 appearances for Juventus and won two league titles with the Bianconeri. He was part of the squad that lost the 1997/98 UEFA Champions League final.
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Another former Bafana Bafana player who featured in Serie A was Mark Fish. The Orlando Pirates legend joined Lazio ahead of the 1996/97 campaign after his heroics in Bucs' CAF Champions League triumph in 1995 and at the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations.
The defender is said to have rejected Manchester United in favour of Lazio, but left the Serie A side after just one season, during which he made 15 appearances.
Fish's former South Africa teammates Erik Tinkler (1996/97) and David Nyathi (1998/99) both spent a season with Cagliari, with the former making 20 appearances for the club and the latter just six.
Siyabonga Nomvethe made 19 appearances for Udinese after joining them in 2002, but was loaned out to the likes of Salernitana Calcio, Empoli and Djurgardens before ending his spell in Italy and returning to South Africa.
The final South African player to have featured in Serie A is Joel Untersee. The left-back was born in Johannesburg but moved to Switzerland at a young age. He joined Juventus at youth level and was called up to the senior side by Antonio Conte in 2011. However, he never made a first-team appearance and was loaned out to Vaduz, Brescia and Empoli. He gained promotion with the latter and joined them on a permanent basis, but left the club again after making just three Serie A appearances.
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The Italian top flight continues on Monday night when Fiorentina take on Brescia, Lecce square up to AC Milan, and defending champions Juventus face Bologna in their first Serie A games since the coronavirus break.
Do you think any current SA player is good enough to play in Italy? Have your say in the comments section below.
