Cassano threatens to sue Real Madrid for "mobbing"

The Italian most recent eccentricity is the will to sue Real Madrid for alleged "mobbing," or bullying in the workplace.

The Spanish giants don't know what to do with the striker, who has been excluded from pre-season training in Austria. Cassano, 25, remains in Madrid, training alone in double sessions as a punishment. And the player claims this constitutes mobbing to force him to leave the club for free.

With this argument, his lawyers are contemplating the possibility of suing Real Madrid.

According to Spanish sports daily As, Real Madrid would have to pay Cassano 12 million euros (over 16 million dollars) if the club were to break unilaterally the contract that links both parties until 2010.

Cassano's presence at Real Madrid has been a complete disaster. He arrived at the club in January 2006 as "one of the best players in Italy, pure talent," as then club president Florentino Perez defined him.

Time would make the striker the last signing made by Perez, who resigned two months later.

Once nicknamed "Il Talentino" due to his prowess with the ball, Cassano arrived in Madrid with a great opportunity to redeem himself and change a career that was already erratic then, following acts of indiscipline at Roma.

Real Madrid believed he was a rough diamond and paid 5.5 million euros to the Serie A club, very glad to get rid of a very controversial player whose contract was due to end that season anyway.

Perez thought that, at worst, he could sell Cassano for more money than he had paid. A safe investment, he thought. But he was wrong.

Cassano only played 12 games that half-season, scored a goal and did not take long to give evidence of his difficult personality. He was overweight when he arrived, and then coach Juan Ramon Lopez Caro never really liked him.

Cassano abandoned himself for good and got so far as to weigh close to 90 kilogrammes, a lot for a professional footballer with a height of 1.75 metres.

Furthermore, he never made a secret of his inclinations and was often seen in club travels voraciously eating cakes and pastries. Then, Real Madrid realised it had a big problem.

When the club signed Italian coach Fabio Capello, who knew Cassano well from a previous spell at Roma, the striker praised the arrival of the coach, and both started out with a good relationship.

Cassano's season opened with optimism, as the Spanish press hailed him as Real Madrid's "best signing" for the upcoming edition of La Liga. But as early as October he insulted Capello at the end of a game, and was banished from the team. He played seven games in the whole season and scored only once.

The Spanish press talks about Cassano as a "former footballer," while the Italian is still willing to fight everyone. And Real Madrid does not know what to do with him, since he earns 3 million euros (4.1 million dollars) and no other team wants him.//dpa