Franco di Santo has become sort of journeymen in recent years.
He has played for the likes of Werder Bremen, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, and Wigan in the last few years. A lot of promise was expected from the Argentine when he signed for Chelsea as a teenager. He has since joined many other clubs even on free transfers after being unable to find consistent form. Even in his first season at Schalke,di Santo was a major disappointment after scoring only two goals in 21 appearances. He finished last season with disappointing statistics of eight goals in 30 appearances.
The Argentine has compared his struggles in the first season at Schalke to the problems he faced at Werder Bremen. He has recalled that his second season at Bremen was a substantial improvement and he expects more of the same in the 2016-17 campaign. Last season, much of the 21 appearances he made in the league came as a substitute. Even then, fans would be expecting a much better return than just two goals in 1300 minutes of action. His best season, by far, was the 2014-15 campaign with Bremen when he scored 13 league goals in 26 appearances.
It was the kind of form that convinced Chelsea to pay £3.5 million for him as a teenager."There is exactly happened to me in Bremen the same thing. I had some injuries, it just was not my year. But the second year in Bremen was then great, and now I hope that it runs on Schalke as well. We have the time well done.In the beginning we played together and thus six times won - then we changed the system,” said the striker at the start of the 2016-17 season. The presence ofKlaas-Jan Huntelaar, though, makes it difficult for di Santo to get game time.