Felipe Melo of Fiorentina gets the honor of Italy’s Serie A Dirtiest Player. Like every season in the Italian league, it would be a strong group of contenders this year, but at the end of the season nobody in the field could stay with the Brazilian midfielder. Melo’s modest twelve yellow cards was among the league’s best, but was actually bested by three total cards by Daniele Conti of Cagliari.
Conti is a Serie A master in the tamer of the two cards. Conti has finished in the top ten in yellow cards each of the last five seasons. His sixty-six yellow cards and five red is the most of any active Italian footballer in the last five seasons in Serie A football. But despite Conti’s delightfully dirty style of play Melo was able to make up ground by achieving a joint-lead three red cards to Conti’s zero. Melo finished the year with eighteen total penalty points and wins the award outright.
As for club totals Siena deserves a pat on the back. They were the cleanest team this year in cards receiving only sixty-five cards for the entire year. Torino deserves a standing ovation as one of the dirtiest teams in all of Europe. The club was one of only two teams (Lecce was the other) to reach the centennial mark this year in total yellow cards. Torino finished the year grand with 102 yellow cards and 8 red cards. Total the team was penalized 118 points. But, Roma was able to outperform in red cards though. The club had a player sent off twelve different times this season.
