Former Liverpool star Fabio Borini has accused his old club Sampdoria of refusing to feed him when he was out of the team.
Borini, 34, sealed a shock return to English football earlier this month when he signed up with Gary Neville and David Beckham’s Salford City in the fourth tier.
After attending a training camp for free agents throughout the summer, he penned a deal with the League Two side. He has played twice so far – 40 minutes in total – and is yet to score.
Having left England for the first time when he departed Sunderland in 2018, he went back to his homeland of Italy, initially with AC Milan before moving again.
He went on to play for Hellas Verona and then Fatih Karagumruk, before joining Serie A side Sampdoria in 2023. He scored nine times in an impressive first season, but fell down the pecking order in the second season following off-field changes.
Now Borini has explained how he was ready to sue the side over allegations of how he was treated.
Former Liverpool star Fabio Borini has claimed one of his former sides refused to feed him when he was out of the team
The Italian, who also played for Chelsea and Sunderland, said he was ready to sue Sampdoria
He told everything The Times: ‘People close to me know how difficult it was because it was a very a strict position taken by the director before even meeting me. He decided that I wasn’t right, I wasn’t this, I wasn’t that, I was a problem in the dressing room, when in reality, I was the dressing room.
‘I was keeping them together in the hard times because it’s my experience that brings me to do that and I can do the same here. I was ready to sue the club. I had every paper to sue the club because they can’t make me train on my own different times, no food, no involvement with the team, all these little things.
‘So I was very, very, very troubled. I spoke with a friend of mine that was in Sampdoria and lived the same situation and he said, “I’m feeling like I’m healing by being away”. And I text him yesterday, and said, “I’m starting to feel those feelings again”. Because it’s a long process.’
Borini initially joined Chelsea’s youth team and went onto make eight appearances for the first team without scoring.
He left the Blues in 2011 and joined Liverpool a year later, featuring under Brendan Rodgers, where he was the Northern Irishman’s first signing as boss. He featured 38 times, scoring three goals, before leaving in 2015.
In the summer, his Sampdoria nightmare came to and end and he trained in England before penning a deal with Salford, who are owned by Beckham and Neville and are third in League Two – one point off top.
He said of his move to the club: ‘It doesn’t really matter the league or context, it’s about football,’ he said. ‘Salford is being built to be a proper football club. It’s not like they’re throwing money around for no reason, it’s football people running a football club.’
Sampdoria were contacted for comment.
