Hair raiser Hamsik

Gabriele Marcotti

• Last Updated: November 06. 2009 7:41PM UAE / November 6. 2009 3:41PM GMT

When somebody spends €500,000 (Dh2.7m) on you and you’re only 17, it can go to your head.

Maybe that’s why Marek Hamsik’s head has extra protection: the kind of spiky, punk-style haircut which does not follow trends, it sets them. Or, at the very least, tells you that the wearer of said hair could care less what you think.

The young Napoli midfielder is an individualist off the pitch, no question about it.

He and his childhood sweetheart, Martina, herself a punk stylist, spend an hour or so each morning making his hair look “just so”.

It’s one of the few luxuries he’s happy to grant himself.

“Some people spend money on cars or jewellery,” Hamsik said recently.

“I spend more than most on my hair ... the rest of it goes in the bank. I have more than I need anyway.”

Imagine that. A footballer who doesn’t chase the bling and is more than happy with his wage packet. That’s why last season he shocked the world when his agent suggested he ought to ask for an improvement on his current €1.9million (Dh10.3m) a season deal.

“Why should I get a pay rise?” he said at the time. “I make more than I can spend already, far more in fact. I will give 100 per cent regardless, because I’m happy to be here.

“So if that extra money makes somebody else happier to play for Napoli or helps the club attract better players, I would rather they spend it that way.

“I’m not crazy, I’m realistic. I’m still young, I’m improving, I’ll have plenty of years to make a lot of money. Right now it’s certainly not a priority.”

It’s the kind of talk which infuriates agents and delights supporters.

Of course, he has been doing plenty of the latter since arriving at second division Brescia a few days after his 17th birthday.

After a season in the youth team, he became a regular half-way through his second year at Brescia.

The club knew they had something special on their hands.

“He was tall, strong, quick and could run all day,” says the man who took him to Italy, Gianluca Nani, now director of football at West Ham.

“And he could strike the ball beautifully with either foot.

“I think in those first two years he must have played every position except centre-forward and goalkeeper.

“We tried him out everywhere, there was nothing he could not do.”

By 2006/07, his third season at Brescia, he had established himself as a dominant attacking central midfielder, capable of scoring 10 league goals a year.

Napoli, newly promoted to Serie A, snapped him up for €5.5m.

They thought the 22-year-old Slovak would be “one for the future”.

Instead, he showed he could do just fine in the present.

He scored nine goals in each of his first two seasons at the San Paolo, forming an unlikely partnership with the outrageously gifted but maddeningly inconsistent Ezequiel Lavezzi.

The two of them generated the kind of enthusiasm not seen in those parts since the days Maradona and Careca.

If there is a downside to his game is that, thus far, he has shown a lack of consistency.

Outstanding one game, peripheral the next. Always self-aware, Hamsik says it’s down to age and inexperience.

“I spend a lot of time thinking about how I can improve, I know my weaknesses,” he says.

“First and foremost, I need to find better ways to contribute even when I’m playing badly.

“Any player can have a bad game, it’s just that the great ones are useful to their team even when things aren’t working well for them.

“If I want to be great, that’s what I have to do.”

And, to be fair, he’s been doing it this season.

He already has seven goals to his name this season and has thrived under new coach Walter Mazzarri.

Predictably, the offers are rolling in. He has reportedly drawn interest from Juventus and Inter, as well as Manchester United and Liverpool.

For now, however, his spiky head won’t be turned. “I’m planning on staying another few years at least, maybe more,” he says.

“Winning things with a big, wealthy club somehow doesn’t strike me as satisfying as doing so at a club like Napoli.”

Once again, words that are sure to make his agent cringe.

gmarcotti@thenational.ae

Catania v Napoli, KO 9pm, Aljazeera Sport +1

Gabriele Marcotti is an expert in world football and lives in London.