UEFA - AC Perugia have signed the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi for next season.
First Libyan
International midfield player Saadi Gaddafi, 30, has reached an agreement with club president Luciano Gaucci on a one-year contract. He is poised to become the first Libyan to play in Serie A and may also feature for his new team in the UEFA Intertoto Cup.
I will give my best and I will always accept the decisions of our coach
Saadi Gaddafi
Many roles
Gaddafi, formerly of Al-Ittihad where he is the president, owns 7.5 per cent of Juventus FC and is also the president of the Libyan Olympic Committee and vice-president of the Libyan Football Federation. He said: “I will give my best and I will always accept the decisions of our coach even if he tells me to sit on the bench or to watch the match from the stands," he said. "I want to see if I can adapt to Italian football. The only problem could be the pressure. In Italy people talk about football seven days out of seven."
Proven record
Gaucci, who is known in Italy for an inventive approach to football management, has a proven track record of plucking talented players from obscurity as he did with Hidetoshi Nakata in 1998, the first Japanese player to join Serie A, who he then sold two years later to AS Roma for €20m.
Bold signings
"We always make signings in which we strongly believe," said Gaucci. "We have been criticised many times after signing players from 'strange' football nations but in the end we have always proved to be right as we did when we signed players from Japan, Korea, China and Iran."
Historic signing
He added: "I think this new signing is historic. It's the first time that a son of a state leader has decided to play professional football in one of the toughest leagues in the world. He's coming with a lot of passion and we are happy to be welcoming him."
