So, everyone had a week to vote and crown the Ugliest Serie A Footballer. It was a tight race, but it in the end there had to be one winner. Who is it? Is it the man who looks like a rat (Mascara), the rapist/kidnapper (Juric), the uni-browed goalkeeper (Rubinho)? It was very close, with only 1 vote separating 1st and 2nd place.

Serie A teams, get your shopping bags ready! The mid-season transfer window officially opened last week (January 1st), and will remain open until January 31st 19:00 CET. It is a busy time for Italian clubs, who on top of getting ready for the return of Serie A next week-end, have their scouts/negotiatiors/investors working full time [.

Chivas USA's Sacha Kljestan has been on the radar of more than a few European clubs since his strong showing at last summer's Olympic Games. A few Dutch and German clubs have reported interest in the young American along with Moncao, Zenith St Petersburg, and Greek side Piraeus.
Word out of LA this weekend is that Kljestan is about to board a plane headed for Milan.

Italy are, along with Argentina and Brazil, one of the favourites to win a medal in the Olympic Football tournament this year. Italy Olympic Football squad for Beijing 2008: Coach: Pierluigi Casiraghi Goalkeepers: Andrea Consigli (21) (Atalanta) Emiliano Viviano (22) (Brescia) Salvatore Sirigu (21) (Cremonese) Defenders: Salvatore Bocchetti (21) (Genoa) Andrea Coda (23) (Udinese) Domenico Criscito (21) (Genoa) Paolo De Ceglie (21) (Juventus) Lorenzo De Silvestri [.

No official announcement yet but I think we have the answer of who is the mysterious Atalanta player to sign for Toon today.

Atalanta's 17-year-old forward, Fabio Zamblera no single first-team appearance for his old club so far, but he is a member of the Italy Under-18 International squad and was highly regarded amongst the European young talent scouts.

So Lorenzo and Alessio had a good idea for a post, we are going to crown Serie A's Ugliest Footballer. There are quite a few of them, and this is the post where we'll nominate footballers. I'll list some here, and if you have a nomination state it in the comments section and I'll add him to the running.

So, the results are in and now it is time for the Final Round of Serie A's Ugliest Footballer. The footballers with the top 10 votes have made it to this round and now we will vote to see who is definitely the ugliest! Results and new poll after the jump.

Here are the top ten ugliest Serie A footballers, voted by you:

1) Giuseppe Mascara - 39 Votes
2) Sulley Muntari - 31 Votes
3) Zlatan Ibrahimovic - 30 Votes
4) Rodrigo Taddei - 29 Votes
5) Ronaldinho - 25 Votes
6) Rubinho - 15 Votes
7) Emerson - 15 Votes
8) Ivan Juric - 14 Votes
9) Antonio Cassano - 12 Votes
10) Stevan Jovetic - 11 Votes

I think everyone that deserved to be there is there, so that's good.

What's that I smell? Is that...Luciano Moggi? More questions now surrounding thaegitimacy of two matches in Serie A this season, after a year of refereeing which brought back memories of World Cup 2002 and everything Juventus did for a 3 year period. The incidents involve the actions between one Atalanta player and five Livorno players and [.

"Messieurs, rien ne va plus"! Scouts/negotiatiors/investors/sporting directors/club presidents have been working their ass off this past month, jumping from table to table in their endless quest for a last-minute star buy, in the traditional carousel that brings players, agents, and club owners all together in a merry-go-round dance.

Hello folks. Hope your enjoying your holiday. For those of you looking for a soccer fix, here are a few stories to tide you over:

Italian players accused of match-fixing

From the "Not again" department comes word out of Rome that five players from Atalanta and Livorno have been charged with match-fixing.

OK, so here on the Italy Offside we are searching for Serie A's Ugliest Footballer. We have all the nominees, and now it is time to vote. If you need to see pictures of each player, you'll find them all in this post and in the comments. Vote for the 10 Ugliest players, and voting will last 10 days (so everyone can vote for 1 ugly player each day).

The point of predictions is to say something which will cause a lot of argument and chair throwing while everyone who slams said predictions gets it wrong in the end as well. And for anyone who does get it correctly, well, they're just the luckiest son of a bitch alive. But it's still a good [...]

For some reason whenever Serie A plays during the week I always feel like it isn't the same. I love the tradition of Serie A Sundays and Serie A on Wednesday just feels strange. But it's still Serie A, so I could care less because I love calcio. Giornata 4 was another great round of calcio: Inter took sole lead of the Serie A table after getting a result vs a tough Lecce side thanks to Julio Cruz, Juventus drew Catania at home and wasted many chances to get all 3 points, Milan keeps bouncing back after a win in Reggio Calabria, Roma continues to struggle after losing away to Genoa, and Fiorentina were outclassed by Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico.

Can anyone tell me what type of performance enhancing drug Alessandro Del Piero is taking right now? (Juventus fans don't jump on my back, that was my attempt at humor). Another inch perfect free kick, and on his 34th birthday to boot. Serie A results after "il salto" (the jump).

Bologna-Roma 1-1
Scorers: 68´ Totti (Rom); 92´ aut.

Palermo and Italy goalkeeper Marco Amelia said saving Ronaldinho's penalty kick was "like playing Playstation". Now I bet tons of clubs will be getting calls from FIFA '09 addicts saying they should get a trial because they are good at saving penalties on Playstation. Roundup after the jump.

•Even though we're still months from the start of Euro 2008, it's evidently not too early to think about World Cup qualifying, as the schedule of qualifying fixtures was announced today (and how delightfully optimistic of C4 to illustrate their story with a picture of Roberto Donadoni).

I promise not all weekend posts will reference classic songs. Some, not all.

While it's nice to see all the big fellas get their Saturday in the sun, it's leaves much to be desired on Sunday, when The Other Sixteen get to dust off their booties and kick a ball around. Luckily enough, we've Derby della Lanterna to quench our calcio thirst.

Atalanta hosted Inter this week and the Nerazzuri knew they couldn't afford another slip up following Roma's win over Genoa to close the gap to just one point the night before. Inter's huge injury list continued but at least it allowed 17 year old Balotelli aka "Super Mario" to start. At least Cambiasso was back [.

Here we are at the penultimate day of the 2007/2008 Serie A season. It has been a long, interesting season with lots of battles in the table but this second to last day is really becoming more important than the last day, because lots of scenarios can be decided tomorrow after every referee has blown the final whistle.

Pablo Mastroeni, the veteran defensive midfielder and longtime face of the Colorado Rapids, may want to leave Denver and seek to further his career in Europe before his contract expires in December. He is reported to be considering that option, according to today's Denver Post (link below).

Our beloved Serie A kicks off this weekend and it's preview time. After thinking that last season was a tough season to predict, this season it becomes even tougher. There are so many quality sides in the top flight this season that it is really hard to predict who will finish where this season.

I'd like to extend a warm welcome to the new Bologna and Siena blogs here at the Italy Offside. Every Serie A club now has it's own blog here at the Offside, and that's really great! Round-up of Giornata 7 after the jump. But before you go there, just analyze this picture of Mourinho. Saturday Night Fever?

Here's what I found interesting after reading various calcio news sites today:

-First, we have another managerial change in Serie A. Chievo haven't won since the first week of the season and manager Beppe Iachini has been sacked. Taking his place will be Domenico Di Carlo, who was in charge of Parma until March of last season.

Watch the match LIVE here. Pre-register at the NEW football site 11×2 today

Roma, languishing in the relegation zone before the derby, took on Lazio, who are flying high in the upper echelons of the table. Roma needed a victory over their rivals to kick-start their season and boost morale, while Lazio were looking to confirm themselves as a side to be reckoned with this season.

Diego Milito. Who would've thought that he would turn out to be possibly the best signing a Serie A side made this summer? 12 goals in 15 games. Results after the jump.

Atalanta-Udinese 3-0
Scorers: 20´ Valdes (Ata); 78´ Doni (Ata); 88´ Vieri (Ata)
Report.

I know statistics are big mostly in American sports. You'll turn on Sportscenter and here a random sportscaster be like "This player has a 65.7893034% shooting percentage, better than the average of the league which is 54.648484645!". Usually American sports will find stats for anything, like the "second assist".

Alessandro Del Piero and Paolo Maldini. Two Italian legends, inspirational captains, and "bandiere" going at it (and for one of the last times since Maldini retires in June). Del Piero and Juventus came out on top, winning 4-2 at the Stadio Olimpico. Results after the jump.

Bologna-Torino 5-2
Scorers: 7´ Barone (Tor); 48´ Volpi (Bol); 53´ Abate (Tor);
55´ Di Vaio (Bol); 62´ Di Vaio (Bol); 68´ rig.

First and foremost I'd like to wish a Happy Holidays to everyone. I hope its a great time for everyone, and I'd like to thank everyone for reading my thoughts on Italian calcio. Due to the holiday season, this will be the last post until around January 5th, where I will resume blogging and bring you those great transfer rumors that will be all over the news once the transfer window opens.

Sory this is so epic, I'm headed to the airport and wanted to pull together as much as I could before I'm at the mercy of the FAA and the weather. God only knows when I'll get home.

•RomaChris has done a great Roma rumor roundup, including such diverse (and occasionally bizarre) names as Arjen Robben, Santiago Solari, Fabio Liverani and Javier Saviola.

Milan not only scored at the San Siro, but they won there, too. And it's all down to Pato! ALL HAIL PATO! Wait, what? You say Ronaldo scored twice, and that Pato didn't sprout wings and fly around the ground while choirs of angels sang his praises? Seriously? But .

Only no more than 24 hours until the end of January transfer window, but there's still no real sign of any new player to come to St. James' Park.

The latest news is we are about to continued Glenn Roeder's effort to sign Derby County's young midfielder Giles Barnes out from Pride Park.

Inter v Juventus: Bigger match review here.

Roma 2 - Empoli 1: On a day when the real Alessandro del Piero looked like magic but couldn't finish, Sebastian Giovinco did the same, though he managed to slot home a gimme on a wide open counter.

Mancio decided to eschew tactical concerns during Saturday's game in favor of making shadow puppets and/or scary faces.

I'm busy packing for an early flight, so here's your one sentence wrap up for each Serie A weekend game. (The team blogs are more than adequate for the good stuff.)

Inter 1 - Lazio 1: Crespo got it early, Rocchi got it back in the second, and Mancio is going to get it from the media all week.

Sorry guys for the late post, but my internet has been down all day (Stupid Time Warner Cable!). So here's the weekend preview:

As you can see by the picture, the main event of Week 37 is the Derby della Madonnina between Milan and Inter. This derby has turned out to become one of the most important derbies in recent years.

And that's a wrap folks. Serie A 2007-2008 is officially over. (Cue some graduation song, or some goodbye song). If you don't have time to read the review or you just don't like my musings about Calcio, Week 38 is summed up for you in the title. And in case you skipped past the title and still don't know who was crowned champion, the picture of Javier Zanetti on the left pretty much gives it away.

In casa Roma le idee non mancano, i nomi pure, ma certo non si potrà più temporeggiare.
Almeno sei gli obbiettivi, ten­denti a sette, i nomi in ballo: il francese Jeremy Menez, l'honduregno David Suazo, il messicano Nery Castillo, l'argentino Diego Milito, l'australiano Mark Bre­sciano, l'altro francese Florent Malouda e, ultimora, il brasiliano dell'Atalanta Ferreira Pinto, voce che circola da qual­che giorno, anche se finora a Trigoria non l'ha confermata nessuno.

Week one, also known as "throw shit against the wall and see how much sticks". How will new players adapt? Which young'uns will turn into stars? Will another big club begin a rough year? Will Maurizio Zamparini fire someone before halftime? All questions we need answered which won't be answered until at the very least [.

Interesting story today from Tuttosport. On the last day of the transfer window, Palermo signed 26 year old striker Davide Succi from Lega Pro side Ravenna. The Milan youth team product was one of the best strikers in Serie B last season, scoring 18 goals but unable to save Ravenna from relegation.

After the long international break, Serie A is back! Here are some things to look out for when you're watching calcio this weekend:

Walter Zenga trying to beat his old team

Walter Zenga, an Inter legend, returns to the San Siro to take on reigning champions Inter and try to beat his former club.