THE FIAT WHO CAN’T WAIT TO FACE THE FERRARIS
HICKEY OF TACKLING DREAMS IBRAHIMOVIC AND RONALDO AS HE EMBARKS ON ITALIAN ADVENTURE
ZLATAN Ibrahimovic once observed that clubs who paid for his services were investing in a Ferrari.
By contrast, Aaron Hickey is more of a Fiat 500. The engine parts are in the right places, he does nothing flashy and Italians seem to like him.
Yet when the Hearts defender contemplates standing side by side with the Swedish superstar on the forecourt of the San Siro Stadium as a Bologna player a week on Monday, he feels like reaching for the L-plates.
After weeks of deliberation over his future, the decision to pick the Serie A club over European champions Bayern Munich raised eyebrows, but came down to one thing. The promise of more exposure to the first team.
Just how quickly that promise might be honoured will become clear when Bologna travel to Milan on the first weekend of their league campaign in a little over a week’s time.
‘It’s mental to think about,’ grinned Hickey yesterday. ‘I don’t expect to play — but even to be part of the squad would be amazing for me. It would be an incredible experience.
‘Zlatan Ibrahimovic is there and what a way to start it would be.’
Hickey wasn’t born when James Richardson conveyed the old-money glamour of Serie A whilst sipping a cappuccino and presenting Channel 4’s Gazzetta Football
Italia from the Piazza Navona in the 1990s.
The last two decades haven’t always been kind to the Italian top flight. Bankrolled by the Agnelli family’s Fiat fortune, Juventus have wrapped themselves around the Scudetto and squeezed like a boa constrictor.
Despite Juve’s capture of Cristiano Ronaldo, most Italian clubs can no longer compete with the state-sponsored wealth of top sides in England, Spain or even France.
Bologna, at least, are giving it a go. Rebuilding their Stadio Renato Dall’Ara at a cost of £90million, the club’s transfer policy set by sporting director Walter Sabatini is geared towards snapping up some of the best young talent in Europe. Subject to the outcome of a medical today, Hickey will join other teenage prodigies like Icelandic midfielder Andri Baldursson, Italian winger Gianmarco Cangiano and Gambian forward Musa Juwara.
Without a Serie A title since 1964, Sabatini is forthright and ambitious on his plans for a slumbering giant of the Italian game.
‘It is my goal to make Bologna great again,’ he says, ‘not only in the transfer market but also as part of a cultural revolution.’
The vision was sold to Hickey during a flying visit to the club’s stadium and training facilities. Italian football, insists the young Scot, is back on an upward trajectory.
‘I’ve heard lots about it from the past and what a massive league it is but I think it’s coming back really strongly again,’ said Hickey. ‘You’ve got Ronaldo there now, as well as massive teams like Bologna, AC Milan, Juventus. They’re some of the best in the world.’
Scots in Italian football are not unheard of. Joe Baker, an England international who spent most of his childhood in Motherwell, joined Scotland legend Denis Law at Torino for a brief spell.
Joe Jordan acquired a cult status at AC Milan, while Graeme Souness left Sampdoria to join Rangers. More recently, Liam Henderson set the tone for Hickey by playing for Bari, Hellas Verona and Empoli.
‘Liam is there and before him there have been people like Souness who are legends of the game,’ said Hickey before boarding a flight to Amsterdam en route to Italy. ‘My first task is to try and work my way into the first-team squad and hope things fall into place after that.’
The decision to turn down Bayern Munich surprised many. Introduced to the German giants by David Moss, the agent who took Celtic pair Liam Morrison and Barry Hepburn to Bavaria, the presence of two Scots teenagers might have made life easier at the European champions for Hickey.
Told that he would start life with Bayern Munich II in the third tier of the German leagues, however, Hickey and his father Neil believe he has a better chance of building on the firstteam exposure already acquired at Hearts by moving to Italy.
‘It was a massive decision for me and a difficult one,’ he acknowledged. ‘But you can’t lose sight of the fact that Bologna are a massive club as well, in Serie A.
‘I think I have definitely made the right decision for me and my future. It’s really exciting to be going over to Italy to see such a big club as Bologna.
‘Nothing has been finalised yet. I still need to get the medical done, but hopefully that will go fine. It’s been difficult waiting for it all to happen.
‘I didn’t know when I was going over. My dad kept telling me I was going over this day or the next day. I was finding it hard to get the medical booked. I’m just glad it’s almost settled now.’
When the indecision over his future reached its peak, he turned to an old head in the Hearts dressing room.
Steven Naismith had been there and done it with big career decisions during his time at Kilmarnock, Rangers and Everton.
‘Steven told me what to do and helped me so much,’ revealed Hickey. ‘The advice he gave me was to take my time and not rush into anything.
‘He told me to make it about playing football and nothing else and working hard in training and stuff.
‘If I work hard in training, I can make it.’
In the short-term, his goal is to establish himself with his new club in Italy be that at left-back — where he made his name — or midfield, where former Hearts manager Craig Levein suspects he might finish up.
In the long-term, he hopes to break into the Scotland set-up after a conspicuous absence from the Under-21s team.
‘I played in the 19s but at the time I was playing first-team football,’ he said. ‘Because I was playing so many matches at the time, I had to withdraw because my legs were absolutely shattered.
‘I’d like to have been playing but I couldn’t. Hopefully, that will change because I’d love to make the breakthrough for Scotland. Obviously, Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney are there — but we’ll see what happens.’
Bologna are a massive club. I’ve definitely made the right decision