Davide Somma ⭑ From A-Z since '92
Davide Somma scored every 114 minutes for Leeds, and the sensation of his potential has never left many of us who watched him play: imagining what he could do if he was first choice, knowing what he would do when he came off the bench.
This is part of my (eight year long, it'll fly by) attempt to write about every Leeds United player since 1992. For more about why I'm doing this, go back to Aapo Halme, and to read all the players so far, browse the archive here.
Missed part one about David Rocastle? You can read it here.
On 8th May 2010 Leeds United thought they were battling Bristol Rovers on their way to a final day promotion to League One. But first, they had to battle with their own winger, Max Gradel, who was battling with Rovers' Daniel Jones, and the referee, and Jermaine Beckford, and Andrew Hughes, and Bradley Johnson, and...
And he wasn't the only Leeds United attacker losing his head that afternoon. 45 minutes later, 75 miles away, Macclesfield Town defender Sean Hessey was accused of spitting at Lincoln City's Davide Somma, who settled the debate with a headbutt and a red card in his final appearance for the Imps.
There was less at stake for Lincoln than for Leeds. Somma's nine goals and five assists in fourteen games on loan from Leeds had dragged the Imps off the bottom of League Two without any need for final day drama. But it meant Somma, like Gradel, would start the next season suspended, whoever they were playing for, whichever division their club was in.
Davide Somma was, like Gradel, a product of what felt like a random but receptive attitude to the cheaper aisles of football's transfer markets. Who could say what hidden forces had brought Gradel, a young Ivorian, to Leeds via Leicester? Or Rui Marques from Angola, Tresor Kandol from (checks notes) probably Brazil, or Mike Grella from Long Island Rough Riders via North Carolina's Cary Clarets? Or Somma, a South African born Italian from America who, in February 2011, one national reporter visiting Elland Road thought was French?
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