Soccer: Cassano not retiring after all (2)

(ANSA) - Verona,, July 18 - Former Roma, Real Madrid, Milan, Sampdoria and Italy forward Antonio Cassano surprised fans Tuesday by reportedly mooting a shock retirement only to deny it at a press conference at his new club Verona.
    "I want to continue this challenge and I'm 100% convinced that I will win it," said the unpredictable 35-year-old.
    Asked why he had been considering hanging up his boots, the playmaker replied "this morning I had a moment of weakness, a drop, but then I thought it over".
    The episode, which observers quickly dubbed another of his 'Cassanate' pranks, came a week after signing from Samp for newly promoted Serie A side Verona. Verona had scrubbed Tuesday afternoon training sessions to allow the player to make his official retirement announcement.
    Cassano was said to have taken the decision after deciding that he could no longer play as well as he would like at a top level.
    Throughout his career Cassano has been known for off-beat temper tantrums and fits of ill discipline for which former Roma and England coach Fabio Capello coined the widely used term "Cassanata".
    One of the most gifted players of his generation, his career has been dogged by disciplinary problems and rows with coaches and he has won relatively few trophies for a footballer of his potential.
    Cassano's temper tantrums have been so numerous that the Italian press adopted Capello's coinage in calling them 'Cassanate' - a play on the widely used swear word 'cazzata', meaning f**k-up.
    After exhausting the patience of his coaches at AS Roma and Real Madrid, he looked to have become a reformed character after joining Sampdoria in 2008.
    He once famously gave a referee who had sent him off the 'horns' gesture, which is an Italian way of telling someone they are a cuckold, and went on to throw his shirt at him and threaten to wait for him for a fight after the game.
    But otherwise he was mostly on good behaviour while playing for the Genoa side before he lost his temper with late club chairman Riccardo Garrone, calling him an "old shit", among other things.
    That spat lead to a dispute that ended with Cassano joining AC Milan in 2011.
    Cassano spent much of his time at Milan recovering from an operation to fix a heart defect that caused him to have a minor stroke in 2011, so it was a relatively uneventful stint in terms of 'Cassanate'.
    He moved to Inter in 2012 but did not stay longer than one season following a big training ground bust-up with former coach Andrea Stramaccioni.
    After Inter, he had spells at Inter and then back at his the club he probably felt most at home at, Sampdoria.
    The player, who comes from a deprived area of the southern Italian city of Bari, is cheerful and entertaining in his infrequent press interviews, although his controversial opinions have got him into trouble.
    He was fined after causing an outcry during Euro 2012 by saying he hoped there were no gay players in the Italy team and using a derogatory term, 'froci', to describe homosexuals.