{"id":1130654,"date":"2020-02-14T10:46:40","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T10:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1130654"},"modified":"2020-02-14T10:46:40","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T10:46:40","slug":"serie-a-lecce-filippo-falco-barcelona-dream","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/serie-a-lecce-filippo-falco-barcelona-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Serie A forward Filippo Falco &#8220;dreams&#8221; of playing for Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Lecce forward Filippo Falco&#8217;s &#8220;dream&#8221; is to play for Barcelona.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old &#8211; once referred to as the &#8220;Messi of Salento&#8221; by Italian paper Corriere dello Sport (Salento being a region in southern Italy) &#8211; has three goals and three assists in 18 Serie A appearances this season, helping Lecce keep afloat just above the relegation zone.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"background-color: transparent; display: block; padding: 0; max-width: 700px;\" title=\"Audioboom player\" src=\"https:\/\/embeds.audioboom.com\/posts\/7494632\/embed\/v4\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Falco has created more chances (36) than any other Lecce player in the Italian top-flight in the current campaign and added a further goal in the Coppa Italia.<\/p>\n<p>And although he &#8220;liked&#8221; Juventus as a child, Falco does Barcelona remains his &#8220;dream&#8221; destination.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have improved a lot. I worked hard and I always believed I could reach this level,\u201d he told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tuttomercatoweb.com\/a-tu-per-tu\/con-filippo-falco-1348896\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tuttomercatoweb<\/a>. \u201cIt is also thanks to the advice from the coach. I must keep developing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to continue having fun, scoring and assisting. As a child I liked Juventus. But the dream is to play for Barcelona.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Falco&#8217;s creative output is all the more impressive given that this is his first full season playing at the top level of Italian football, with his only other experience of Serie A football coming in nine appearances for Bologna in 2015\/16.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Takumi Minamino: How Japanese fans support Liverpool&#039;s new signing | \u5357\u91ce \u62d3\u5b9f\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7qsprIbhfVE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC_QgsfA8W1TdLADOz0txpTg?sub_confirmation=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Squawka\u2019s Youtube channel here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The former Italy U-20 international credits his improvement to the influence of manager and former Lazio midfielder, Fabio Liverani.<\/p>\n<p>Falco added: &#8220;<span>I worked a lot and I always believed I could reach this level thanks to the coach&#8217;s [Liverani] advice.\u00a0<\/span><span>I&#8217;m happy.\u00a0<\/span><span>But I have to keep growing &#8220;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Lecce currently are 17th in Serie A, three points clear of the relegation zone after pulling off a shock win over Napoli last Sunday, in which Falco assisted his team&#8217;s second. A fixture against bottom-of-the-league SPAL is on the horizon this Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lecce forward Filippo Falco&#8217;s &#8220;dream&#8221; is to play for Barcelona. The 28-year-old &#8211; once referred to as the &#8220;Messi of Salento&#8221; by Italian paper Corriere dello Sport (Salento being a region in southern Italy) &#8211; has three goals and three assists in 18 Serie A appearances this season, helping Lecce keep afloat just above the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":1130679,"parent":0,"menu_order":3165,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Barcelona news: The 'Messi of Salento' admits dream of playing for La Liga champions","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Lecce playmaker Filippo Falco has admitted he's \"dreaming\" of one day playing for Barcelona.","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1130654","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Barcelona news: The &#039;Messi of Salento&#039; 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