Pato, Adriano, Rivaldo: The 'Golden Bin' winners in Serie A

Serie A has been graced with some of the finest male footballers in history.

From Diego Maradona to Paolo Maldini and Cristiano Ronaldo to Roberto Baggio, the annals of Italy’s top-flight boast enough legends to fill any ‘Hall of Fame’ to its capacity.

However, the sunshine and wine of Italy isn’t the promised land for everybody because for every player to thrive in Serie A, there is also a footballer who simply doesn’t gel with the division.

Or at the very least, a top-class player who produces at least one season at the pinnacle of Italian football where they fall painfully short of the standard expected of them.

In fact, we know that so well because – believe it or not – there was once an award that was specifically designed to name and shame the most disappointing Serie A player each year.

As corroborated by Football Italia, the now-defunct ‘Bidone d’oro’ was a tongue-in-cheek prize that was decided upon every calendar year by listeners of the Catersport on Rai Radio 2.

The so-called award, which roughly translates to either ‘Golden Bin’ or ‘Golden Trashcan’, started life in 2003 and ran until Catersport was taken off air in 2012.

As such, it means that a total of 10 plaques were dished out in what can only be described as football’s equivalent of the Golden Raspberry Awards, which mocks the worst films of each year.

There’s no denying that it makes for a curious bit of footballing history, so we couldn’t help taking a look through all the ‘winners’ as we twiddle our thumbs through the current international break.

And let’s just say that the Bidone d’oro picked up some high-profile targets along its warpath with World Cup and Champions League winners in the firing line. Check out the results down below:

Just four