Player Focus: Hugo Campagnaro - From Nightmare To Neapolitan Dream

At first glance there was very little significance about the sixty-sixth minute goal. A defender tapping in at the far post to give a Champions League contender and title hopeful a 2-1 lead away to one of Serie A’s minnows is about as routine as it gets. Yet as Napoli’s Hugo Campagnaro wheeled away, his sky blue gum shield hanging out of his mouth, the emotion which came flooding from the 31-year-old seemed quite at odds with the stature of the opening day encounter back in September.

“After a nightmare summer, I needed certain satisfactions to help me look forward and keep moving” the Argentinian told SportItalia after the game and what a tumultuous summer it had indeed been. Three people – including a female police officer and a prison guard - were killed and the player himself seriously injured after a car accident on the road between the towns of Coronel Baigorria and Espinillo in the Cordoba province of his homeland.

He faced a charge of ‘aggravated involuntary manslaughter’ for his role in the crash, Prosecutors convinced it was the recklessness of Campagnaro’s driving which had caused the initial collision which also killed his life-long best friend. Indeed, while his seatbelt ensured the physical damage was minimal, the emotional and mental scars will remain with him perhaps forever.

Yet since that season opener at the Dino Manuzzi, his form has been spectacular, good enough to warrant a maiden call-up to the Argentina squad this past week. That decision from the National team coach would be described by many as nothing less than deserved but one which the player himself said Alejandro Sabella was “brave” to make, telling La Gazzetta dello Sport that “it isn’t easy to call upon a player like me”.

Looking closer at his season however, it is impossible to see how Sabella, or indeed any other coach, could afford to leave out a player like Campagnaro and shows his place in the Albiceleste line-up was indeed entirely justified. He has made 3.6 tackles per game, a figure higher than any other defender in Serie A and in tenth place overall, behind nine midfielders. It is also almost a full tackle per match more than any other Napoli player, his nearest rival – defensive midfielder Walter Gargano - is some fifteen challenges behind him.

He has also recorded 66 interceptions (at a rate of 3.1 per game) which sees him behind only Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s new punch-bag Salvatore Aronica for the Partenopei, while his 0.6 offsides won per game and 6.8 clearances are both second only to club captain Paolo Cannavaro. Only Gargano and the superb Gökhan Inler have completed more than his 43.5 passes per game, a statistic made even more impressive by the 82.3% success rate. His winning of 1.9 aerial duels per game is also a team high and the 40 he has won to date is exactly double the total won by Cannavaro and embarrassingly clear of Aronica’s pathetic tally of three, despite him being the shortest member of that regular defensive trio.

As much as the individual numbers have been eye-catching, it is as part of that trademark Walter Mazzarri back three where he has been most important. Despite looking porous in their Champions League Last Sixteen encounter with Chelsea, that unit, covered brilliantly by Inler and Gargano, has held firm both this season and last, protecting goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis and allowing the freedom to wing-backs Christian Maggio and Andrea Dossena to support their excellent attacking trio to devastating effect.

Over that period Napoli have, despite their seemingly cavalier approach, kept an astounding 39 clean sheets, a superb return for a team which plays with such reckless abandon on the break and a figure testament to the defensive solidity - this season they have allowed the fourth fewest number of shots against per game in the league (11.2) - in which Campagnaro plays such a key role.

These well-rounded and impressive performances have seen him record a WhoScored.com average rating of 7.31, a figure which trails only his compatriot Ezequiel Lavezzi at club level and behind only Inter’s Lucio and Thiago Silva of Milan in terms of Serie A defenders. He played the full ninety minutes in Argentina’s 3-1 win over Switzerland and, as he told La Repubblica earlier this week "To remain within the national team, I must do well with Napoli”. Impressive in the Champions League and now an International footballer, Hugo Campagnaro merely needs to play as he has been. The numbers speak for themselves.