ROME -- Gerson Santos da Silva, Gabriel Barbosa Almeida (known as Gabigol), Marko Rog and Marko Pjaca are worth 83 million euros collectively, yet have played less than 400 minutes overall between them, (of which only 180 minutes for Serie A), meaning the four footballers technically received 450,000 euros for each minute on the pitch.

 The players can be defined as heroes – earning a fortune for minimal effort – or disappointments, spending hardly any time exerting themselves.

 To give them some credit, Marko Pjaca was unlucky with the Nazionale on Oct.4, having to rest for two weeks and now seemingly unlikely to return to sport until the new year.

 The same cannot be said, however, for others. Take Marko Rog, for example, who remained on the bench for 14 days, playing a miserable 14 minutes against Inter Milan and 20 against Cagliari.

 Rog is possibly a victim of the integralism of Maurizio Sarri, Napoli coach, hardly inclined to insert new players in his (more or less) experienced system. The player remained on the bench for eight days before finally convincing the coach to give him a firm place within the squad.

 However, without a doubt, the two Brazilians have ‘suffered’ the most. The 20-year-old Gabigol arrived on the Italian football scene full of youthful optimism after two seasons with Santos FC and an Olympic Gold medal. The harsh reality soon hit after playing only 16 minutes against Bologna.

 It is looking ever more likely that the sporting star shall return to Brazil in Jan. 2017.

 This moves us onto Gerson, the latest present from Walter Sabatini to Roma before his goodbye. Smashing into the scene like a phenomenon due to two impressive Youtube videos which circulated the web, the player was paid 17 million euros. After a series of membership problems, he managed to play just 90 minutes for the club. Since then, he has performed a measly 86 minutes in three championship matches, and 267 minutes in 6 Europa League matches.

 Hence, in the case of Italian football, it appears the lines are significantly blurred between the winners and losers. Some players certainly get a lot of ‘buck for their bang.’

 sw