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.

Cruzeiro's talented but injury-plagued midfielder, Kerlon, is on the verge of completing a 1.3 million euro move to Italy's Chievo ...

Since the season started (and that's not very long mind you, only a couple of months), Alessandro Del Piero captain has not scored one, or two, or even three... but five goals on set-pieces, and one more beautiful than the next. Such deadly free-kick scoring efficiency has been the trademark of very few players in [.

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.

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Daily Mail/This is London - QPR believes Inter Milan youngster Destro is the right man
Queens Park Rangers are close to signing Inter Milan teenager Mattia Destro on a season-long loan.
The 17-year-old forward has been recommended to Rangers by former Inter boss Roberto Mancini following his outstanding displays for the club's youth team last season.

65 soccer players. 10 days. 1 goal- to get signed by a professional soccer team. Is this the newest Italian reality show? No, it is not. This scenario is actually real, and it's going on at the famed Coverciano training complex in Florence right now. Every summer players without a club go to Coverciano for a training camp where they hope to impress various scouts of Serie A, B, and Lega Pro (C1 and C2) teams so that they have a job for the coming season.

Jozy Altidore meets the Nigerians

A big day in US soccer as the men's national team take on the Nigerians, the 1996 Olympic winners. A win or a draw should see them through the quarterfinals. They had a golden opportunity to seal the deal against the Netherlands but were undone by a 93rd minute equalizer by Gerald Sibon.

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.

They had tagged him as the next big hope of Les Bleus, the player destined to solve all of Roma's offensive problems this season. But instead of becoming a master on the Stadio Olimpico grass, Jérémy Menez's expertise extended to far more humble topics, such as the type of wood on the Giallorossi bench or [.

Serie B (which I still consider to be Europe's top second division) has made some changes for next season regarding squad size. Even though they play 42 games in Serie B, lots of squads have very big rosters and most coaches don't tinker with the line-up often, which culminates in lots of players sitting on the bench all year.

Ho saputo che ad appena 30 anni il nostro ex giocatore Igor Tudor ha deciso di porre fine alla sua carriera a causa dei persistenti problemi fisici. 30 anni, prestissimo... Croato, classe '78, da noi ha giocato ben 7 stagioni. "Nella stagione 2000/2001 segna ben 6 reti, di cui si ricordano quelle con il Milan, la Fiorentina e la Lazio campione d'Italia.

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Goal.com - Bologna And QPR After Bogdani
Albanian striker Erjon Bogdani of Chievo is getting requests from teams both in Italy and abroad.
Daniele Arrigoni's newly promoted Bologna are still looking for a powerful striker for next season, when they will make their return to Serie A after three seasons of absence.

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Sunday Mirror/Steve Stammers - Terry Venables set to make return to Queens Park Rangers
Terry Venables is in line for a sensational return to football with Queens Park Rangers.
Venables has been out of the game for 10 months after losing his job as the assistant to Steve McClaren when the England manager was sacked.

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.

34 years ago, on the 9th of November 1974, in a little town called Conegliano in the province of Treviso, one of the beautiful game's greatest legends saw the light. Born of Gino and Bruna Del Piero, three decades later this wonderful footballing genius is still running on the fields of Serie A and of [.

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.

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On The Field: Last Saturday began with a come-from-behind victory at home to Barnsley. That was followed in mid-week with defeating Swindon 3-2 in the Carling Cup. Followed that with a home Carling Cup draw against Carlisle in the next round. And the week ended with QPR travelling to Sheffield to play Sheffield United and to suffer their worst-ever League Defeat to Sheffield United.

So as you can see from the title, 2 things happened in the calcio world this weekend. We had the SuperCoppa, and we had the third round of the Coppa Italia. Let's go backwards and begin with the SuperCoppa. Inter won the first trophy of the season, triumphing over Roma on penalties 8-7 after drawing 2-2 in regulation.

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 [.

The 2008/2009 Serie A season has finally kicked off, and what a weekend it was. There were so many interesting games and results. For the first time since 1984, none of the big teams have full points after the first game. Hopefully this is a sign that this season will be very exciting and interesting.

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.

13/09/2008
Palermo - Roma 3 - 1
Inter - Catania 2 - 1
14/09/2008
Bologna - Atalanta ore 15.00
Genoa - Milan ore 15.00
Lazio - Sampdoria ore 15.00
Lecce - Chievo ore 15.00
Napoli - Fiorentina ore 15.00
Reggina - Torino ore 15.00
Siena - Cagliari ore 15.

13/09/2008
Palermo - Roma 3 - 1
Inter - Catania 2 - 1
14/09/2008
Bologna - Atalanta 0 - 1
Genoa - Milan 2 - 0
Lazio - Sampdoria 2 - 0
Lecce - Chievo 2 - 0
Napoli - Fiorentina 2 - 1
Reggina - Torino 1 - 1
Siena - Cagliari 2 - 0
Juventus - Udinese 1 - 0
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L'INFERMERIA DI TRIGORIA INIZIA A SVUOTARSI LENTAMENTE.SOLO FISIOTERAPIA PER JUAN,ANCORA SOFFERENTE
Vucinic torna, Perrotta no
Mirko pronto per il rientro, niente da fare per Simone, si proverà per Mexes
Vucinic ci sarà. È questa l'unica buona notizia
che viene, dall'infermeria giallorossa,
in vista della partita di Champions con il
Cluj.

20/09/2008
Catania - Atalanta ore 18.00
Roma - Reggina ore 20.30
21/09/2008
Cagliari - Juventus ore 15.00
Fiorentina - Bologna ore 15.00
Lecce - Siena ore 15.00
Palermo - Genoa ore 15.00
Sampdoria - Chievo ore 15.00
Torino - Inter ore 15.

The third giornata of Serie A had less drama and surprises then the last two weeks, but it was interesting and exciting nonetheless. All the big teams won (including Milan for the first time): Inter swept aside Torino, Juventus won a tricky away game vs. Cagliari, Roma ended their "crisis" by soundly defeating Reggina 3-0, Milan finally won with a 4-1 victory over Lazio, and Fiorentina keep chugging along (with Gila scoring goals) with a win vs.

27/09/2008
Sampdoria - Juventus ore 18.00
Fiorentina - Genoa ore 20.30
28/09/2008
Bologna - Napoli ore 15.00
Catania - Chievo ore 15.00
Lecce - Cagliari ore 15.00
Palermo - Reggina ore 15.00
Roma - Atalanta ore 15.00
Torino - Lazio ore 15.

When looking at the schedule of the 5th Giornata, all eyes had to be on Milan-Inter. The Derby was important not only for fans of those teams but for fans of other teams, as everyone had to hope Inter were stopped. And they were stopped, as the Rossoneri prevailed with a thunderous header from Ronaldinho, who scored his first goal in a Milan jersey.

Interesting pairings on matchday 15 and the punters are going to have a tough time picking winners.  Inter, Juventus and Roma have midweek Champions League matches after this one.  Roma must win against Bordeaux if they hope to continue and the other clubs will require points if they hope to maintain their first place standing in each group.