Last week it was reported by Bologna F.C. they had signed a striker and none other than youthful journeyman Robert Acquafresca appeared at the player presentation.

Arriving from Genoa on a one year loan, terms would include an option to purchase half of his contract on a co-ownership deal by way of a rather circumventive route.

If you recall, last season our native Italian was on loan to Cagliari during what was surely a frustrating season, having scored but three goals in 14 matches. And by the June 22nd deadline, it became obvious Cagliari would not exercise the buy-out clause in Acquafresca’s contract.

Fast forward - and the official Bologna team website reads, “Bologna FC 1909 confirms an agreement has been reached with Genoa CFC for the temporary transfer of Robert Acquafresca, …”

This journey of and for Acquafresca is even more interesting if we start at the beginning and the beginning starts with the Torino primavera as a local boy. Promotion to Serie A quickly happened in the summer of 2005 for club and player. But FIGC (the Italian Football Federation) expelled Torino due to financial difficulties, meaning a free release of the squad and the arrival of Inter Milan during a feeding frenzy, twist number one for our journeyman to be.

With no time to ponder his change of venue, Acquafresca two days after his move to Inter Milan, found himself on loan to newly promoted Treviso, a club experiencing its first and only season in the top flight of Italian football.

The Treviso deal was an earlier co-ownership arrangement with larger and better established Internazionale for a period of two seasons meaning at the end of 2005-2006, our hero was packing bags back to a lower division.

After 43 appearances and scoring 11 goals for Treviso, in June 2007 Inter reappeared to buy the remaining 50% of his contract. Surely he would now play in the blue and black of Inter or would he? No, not a single match. During the same summer of 2007 Robert Acquafresca was part of the David Suazo transfer from Cagliari, which saw him move to Cagliari and again away from Inter on another one of those Italian co-ownership deals. Career twist number two or is it three, losing count already.

Not an Inter man after all
The striker spent two years with Cagliari, the first year on, yes, a co-ownership deal and the second simply on loan. During his first 10 months it was announced that Inter would buy back the remaining 50% of his contract, making him fully an Inter player. Time to step up his game and that he did managing 24 goals in 68 appearances but would the Nerazzurri now finally let him make it official, twist number X coming up.

In the summer of 2009 he was once again on the move, and this time off to Genoa as part of the transfer deal bringing Diego Milito and Thiago Motta to the San Siro. The reported pricing for Robert Acquafresca and three other players in the move to Genoa from Inter was set at £16 million.

Snubbed again by Inter, it was a frustrating 2009-2010 season for the young man, playing a mere ten games before his next bus ride and loan to Atalanta. But early on in 2010 Acquafresca terminated his loan contract, moving back to Genoa for the latter half of the season. Solid footing? Not a chance with Genoa after a single season placing him back on the transfer market, a feeling familiar for the young 22 year-old by now.

With a loan option negotiated with Cagliari and player agreed upon, a next deal was struck and a second one year stint at Cagliari loomed.

We return to present and the question is will it be any different then the past? Maybe this is the season Robert Acquafresca has finally found himself a home and now can really kick start his stuttering career which promised so much early on but of course he is still an on-loan man for Bologna…