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A former Liverpool striker has claimed an Italian club he previously played for refused to feed him when he wasn't getting regular game time.
The striker, who also played for the likes of Chelsea and Sunderland, has made a sensational return to English football 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 death with the League Two side. Now 34, he has played twice - 40 minutes in total - so far, and is yet to score.
Having left England the first time, though, when he departed the Black Cats in 2018, he went back to his homeland of Italy, initially with AC Milan before moving again.
He went onto 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, Fabio Borini, the player in question, has explained how he was ready to sue the side over allegations of how he was treated.
A former Liverpool star has claimed one of his former sides refused to feed him when he was out of the team
Fabio Borini, who also played for Chelsea and Sunderland, said he was ready to sue Sampdoria
Borini said, via 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' 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.'
