Football
9y

Marco Borriello out to make his mark at Genoa

#INSERT type:image caption:Marco Borriello is out to prove he is not past his best with Genoa. END#

Marco Borriello is out to prove he is not past his best with Genoa having been denied the opportunity to do as much at Roma.

The 32-year-old joined the Rossoblu during the winter break, returning to the Ligurian city for the third time in his career having left a mark in each of his last two stints. This time should not be any different with Borriello admitting he has plenty of pent-up frustration inside him ready to be released after a disappointing few years in the capital.

"You do start asking yourself questions, but the truth is the new owners had different plans," Borriello told La Gazzetta dello Sport. "I remember [Roma sporting director Walter] Sabatini at his first press conference said that Borriello was a problem.

"[Daniel] Osvaldo, [Mattia] Destro, [Fabio] Borini and [Seydou] Doumbia all arrived and I was never more than third or fourth-choice, without even being evaluated for what I did on the field. Yet the first year was excellent -- I remember reading that I had a better goals-per-game ratio in my first six months as a Roma player than [Gabriel] Batistuta, [Abel] Balbo, [Rudi] Voeller and [Francesco] Totti.

"Then Claudio Ranieri left, Vincenzo Montella arrived and he picked Totti as his centre-forward, and the decline started there.

"I wanted to join Genoa, where I had scored 12 goals, last year. I was even starting to think that I could score 15 goals there and be picked for the World Cup. But Destro was injured so they didn't let me go.

"When Totti picked up an injury, I played eight of the 10 games we won in a row, scoring in the 10th. That was such a personal satisfaction."

Other than that positive moment, however, Borriello says the rest of his time with Roma was negative, purely because he was never given a chance.

"I'm glad somebody else notices that," he said. "I would have liked to have had the opportunity to get things wrong, but everybody's free to make up their own minds. I stayed at Roma because I wanted to change people's opinions, but I was banging my head against a brick wall."

Now back at Genoa, Borriello is searching for more than his first goal since October 2013. He still believes he can rediscover the form that can make him a candidate for a place in the national team again, perhaps even for Euro 2016.

"I'm here to pay this club back for the faith they have shown in me, but also and above all to prove to myself that I'm still good enough," Borriello said. "I still feel good and am a long way from the moment when I will quit playing. When that day does come, I want to hear people saying that Borriello was a good footballer.

"These two seasons lead up to the next European Championship and that's an important objective for many -- and I also want to give it a go."

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